Matt Mistretta ’28
Staff Writer
Following the Holy Cross Baseball Team’s most successful season in recent memory, featuring a Patriot League regular season and tournament Championship and a historic appearance in the Chapel Hill Regional, the Crusaders opened their 2026 season against the 2024 Atlantic-10 Champs, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
Featuring standout transfer pitcher from Kansas, Patrick Steitz, and the number seven catcher according to D1Baseball, Jacob Lee, VCU posed a hearty non-conference challenge for Holy Cross to open the 2026 season.
The Crusaders opened with their Friday starter, Senior Jaden Wywoda, who posted a 3.63 ERA and 8.3 K/9 in 2025. Wywoda pitched five innings of one-run ball, only allowing three hits and striking out four.
Early on, Senior outfielder C.J. Egrie proved why he’s the leadoff man, reaching base in the fourth inning with a single, followed by stealing second and third, and scoring on a wild pitch to give Holy Cross the game’s first score.
Following a sacrifice fly that tied the game, Holy Cross threatened again with Egrie stealing another base, but the Crusaders were unable to cash in against the VCU bullpen, which held Holy Cross scoreless after the fourth despite many chances.
In the final frame, following a crucial error on a dribbler back to the mound, the VCU runner advanced to second and scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly.
The rest of the series was not much better, with game two of the series (and game one of a doubleheader) ending with a score of 14-1 in favor of VCU. The Rams jumped out to a hot start, scoring 12 runs in the first three innings, with Steitz pitching a stellar five innings (in a shortened seven-inning game), blanking the Crusader hitters and striking out five in his VCU debut.
Game two of the doubleheader saw each team trade blows, with the game tied 1-1 after three, but VCU freshman outfielder Brendan Horne’s bases clearing triple blew the door open for a five-run frame.
Horne had three hits, including the aforementioned triple and a home run in the doubleheader. The lead got up to 9-1, but Holy Cross would not go down easy. Junior catcher Van Coughlin launched a two-run jack to make the score 9-3, and was followed up by a four-run eighth inning with run contributions from freshman infielder Carter Crowley and sophomore catcher Nick Spanner.
However, the pitching could not hold down the fort, with a seven-run bottom half of the inning to put the game away with a final score of 19-7.
Some standouts from the series include Egrie, the Patriot League Preseason Player of the Year. His four stolen bases in the series leaves him needing only eight more steals to become the program’s leader in stolen bases.
Egrie drew four walks and scored two of the Crusader runs in the series. Spanner had an OPS of 1.000 in the two games he played, including a double and four total bases.
The marathon that is the baseball season continues this weekend, where Holy Cross has a four game set at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Fla. The first game starts at 6 p.m. this evening.
Featured image courtesy of Holy Cross Athletics
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