Brendan Grudberg ’28
Assistant Sports Editor
The Holy Cross baseball team is now well over halfway through their 2026 campaign, sitting just below .500 at 16-19 following a Tuesday mid-week matinee 1-9 loss at Brown. The Crusaders struggled in their non-conference series, with a record of 4-11 in their early season matchups against various opponents both with warmer climates and greater conference prestige.
Despite that, the reigning Patriot League champions have found their stride since spring break, earning a 10-6 conference record and going 12-8 overall since that point. With another trip to the Patriot League tournament all but guaranteed, and 10 conference games remaining to decide seeding, let’s take a statistical look at the Crusaders’ recent performances to make sense of this recent upswing.
The Crusaders kicked off conference play with a three-game series against Army West Point, in which they took two out of three. The Crusaders and Black Knights split the first two games, riding the arms of Jaden Wywoda and Kevin Reavey, respectively, throughout most of the game to hold their opponents to one run in each victory.
Jaden Wywoda is the Crusaders’ ace in 2026, following up a very successful Junior campaign as the #2 starter behind Danny Macchiarola. Wywoda pitched six innings of one-run ball in this one, leaving the last three to long reliever Jake Lenahan, who pitched three scoreless and hitless innings.
In the game three rubber match, the Crusaders put on their rally caps to turn a 4-4 eighth inning ballgame into a 10-4 victory. CJ Egrie stood out in this one, driving in three of the Crusaders’ 10 runs and reaching base four times in six plate appearances.
Their second conference series was a sweep against now second-to-last place Lehigh. Jaden Wywoda led the Crusaders to a 1-0 game one victory behind minimal run support, pitching seven scoreless in a (shortened) complete-game shutout. The bats were quiet in this one, turning 11 baserunners into just one run and leaving nine runners stranded when it was all said and done. They came alive for games two and three, though, accruing 23 total hits and 13 runs to complete the sweep.
Unfortunately, the Crusaders’ momentum was stopped the following weekend, as they were swept in three home games against Lafayette, which to this point are the only three conference wins for the last-place Leopards.
Holy Cross got some rejuvenated confidence in their mid-week matchup the following Tuesday, beating Merrimack 15-13 in a scoring barrage. Three Crusaders hit three home runs in this one, including Ryan Grundy, Nick Andersen, Colin Brown, but the real damage was done with their eyesight, drawing a mind-boggling 16 walks in a single game. It was none other than CJ Egrie leading the way with five bases on balls, as the reigning Patriot League Player of the Year showed off perhaps his most valuable skill at perhaps the easiest time to do so.
The next weekend was another series against Army, in which the Crusaders got back to their dominant ways with another sweep. Game one was, for all intents and purposes, won in the first inning, as the Crusaders cycled through their entire lineup in the frame to put up six runs.
The duo of Wywoda and Lenahan gave up five runs on the mound, two of which were unearned, to give the Crusaders a comfortable victory.
Game two saw another massive scoring inning for Holy Cross, in which they put up eight runs in the third inning. Half of those eight runs came in the form of an Owen Stelzer grand slam. The Crusaders reached base 22 times in this 16-6 blowout, including another 12 walks.
Game three was more of the same, with the Crusaders reaching base 13 times and scoring 10 runs, parlaying that with a clean one-run start from Derek Volz to cruise to a clean 10-1 victory.
Their most recent series was a 2-2 split against first-place Bucknell. With Pedro Leon going four innings as the starter, Nick Harnisch picking up the win in the fifth inning, and Jake Lenahan shoving the final four in long relief, the Crusaders gave up just five runs to the Bison and scored 14 themselves for a big opening game victory.
The Crusaders lost 4-5 in a shortened game two, but picked it up with a 7-5 win in the latter half of the Saturday doubleheader. Brett Mulligan shined in this one, giving up just one hit and one walk in five innings of scoreless baseball, earning his first pitching win of the season.
The Crusaders have been powered mainly by their bats to this point, with three hitters above a 1.000 OPS in conference play, including Grundy, Royer, and Sandell, and a fourth in Egrie, who reaches base nearly every other at-bat and has stolen an unbelievable 34 bases in 62 times reaching base. That mark of 34 dwarfs second place in the Patriot League in Chris Barr of Army with 19.
Infielder Simon Landry has also come on well as an everyday player in his Sophomore season, with an OPS of .803 in conference play and six doubles on the year.
The Crusaders’ pitching has been more of an issue thus far, with no starter outside of Wywoda making a convincing case for the number two spot in the rotation. Wywoda himself is enjoying a solid senior season, with a 4.44 ERA and 1.13 WHIP, both top-six marks among qualified starters in the Patriot League.
Sophomore Jake Lenahan has also been fantastic as the Crusaders’ top relief option, pitching 29.2 innings at a 5.16 ERA in long relief outings. That ERA has improved to 3.38 in seven appearances in conference play, in which Lenahan has logged nearly as many total innings as some of his starter teammates.
With 10 games over three more Patriot League series, the Crusaders sit comfortably in a playoff position and have a very real shot of hosting the semifinal series at Fitton Field once again come May. While there have been real struggles transitioning from their Championship season a year ago, the Crusaders seem to be getting hot at the right time and have done phenomenally against the Patriot League’s best.
Featured image courtesy of Holy Cross Baseball Instagram
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