Lincoln-Way East believes that it has one of the better baseball teams in the Chicago area.
On Wednesday, it got the chance to state its case against top-ranked Brother Rice and definitely made the most of the opportunity.
The Griffins used a pair of first-inning home runs to grab an early 3-0 lead and went on to claim a 4-2 nonconference win over the Crusaders in Frankfort.
Dietrich Enns (2-0) picked up the win for East after scattering seven hits and fanning six in six innings. Brian Russell worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh to get the save.
"There's nothing better for a pitcher than to be up 3-0 after the first inning," Enns said. "I made a couple of mistakes, but other than that I kept the ball down and felt I was successful.
"If we play like this every day, we feel that we can be right up there with all of the other top teams."
Brandon Hohl put the Griffins (4-1) up for good at 2-0 in his team's first at-bat when he smacked a two-run shot and Andrew Wendt followed that up with another home run.
Brother Rice (6-1) pulled to within 3-2 in the third inning following a homer from Doug Schumacher, but East got an insurance run an inning later on a solo blast from Joe Turek.
"This was great win for us," Hohl said. "It's easy to get up for a good team like Brother Rice. Getting the early lead was good for Dietrich since it made him more comfortable."
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