Like any baseball coach knows, if you give quality opposition some extra opportunities to score, they’re most likely going to take advantage of just that.

That’s what Josh Aldrich and the St. Mary’s baseball team saw Friday afternoon.

In another matchup of top-10 teams in Class 3A, ninth-ranked St. Mary’s saw No. 4 South Umpqua open the Far West League doubleheader with a 7-3 comeback win before claiming a 7-0 victory to record the sweep of the Crusaders.

“That’s a solid ball club and they just continued to keep the pressure on,” said Aldrich of South Umpqua. “We had some opportunities to make plays — not those that were necessarily errors, but where you could have made a play, we didn’t. (South Umpqua) made the plays they were supposed to. They were solid defensively and made all the plays, and we just missed opportunities and gave them a couple of four-out innings throughout the day.”

In Game 2, St. Mary’s (9-6, 2-4 FWL) didn’t record its first hit until the bottom of the seventh inning on a single by Alan Gomez.

Prior to that, three different South Umpqua (13-3, 3-3) pitchers — Andrew Camp, Justin Jenks and Taylor Bowers — had kept the Crusaders’ bats completely quiet.

The trio of Lancers combined for seven strikeouts in the one-hit shutout in Game 2.

Camp, who threw four no-hit innings to pick up the win, was given up a 2-0 lead to work with in the top of the third thanks to back-to-back sacrifice flies by Jordan Stevenson and Ever Lamm.

The Lancers added onto their lead with four runs in the fifth and one more in the sixth.

“You look at the fact that there were back-to-back sac flies at one point, they just executed baseball things that they needed to,” said Aldrich. “We didn’t in every case. We had plays we could have made, we hit balls that they tracked down for outs. We’ve just got to keep grinding.”

The Crusaders jumped out to a 3-1 lead after three innings in the opener, getting RBI singles from CJ Seggelink and Travis Johnson. An inning later, Gomez hit an RBI single of his own to double the St. Mary’s lead.

Gomez and Johnson both finished with a pair of hits and an RBI in Game 1.

But South Umpqua tied the game at 3-all in the sixth, taking advantage of a leadoff walk. Christian Chavez cut the St. Mary’s lead in half with an RBI single, then scored on Camp’s RBI double to tie the game.

The Lancers took the lead an inning later, this time loading the bases against Crusaders reliever Grant Russo, who walked in what proved to be the game-winning run. Lamm then scored on an error before RBI singles by Isaac Simpson and Camp made it 7-3.

St. Mary’s starting pitcher Beau Aldrich was solid over his 5 2/3 innings of work, but didn’t pick up a decision, allowing seven hits and two earned runs while striking out eight and walking four.

South Umpqua starter Jace Johnson allowed eight hits and struck out eight in a complete-game effort in Game 1.

“Every team has multiple pitchers that are good,” said Aldrich of the tough FWL slate this season, “and it’s really just the teams that can execute that are going to get there.”

FIRST GAME

South Umpqua1000024—7101

St. Mary’s0210000—383

J. Johnson and Horton; Aldrich, Russo (6) and Lawrence. W — Johnson. L — Russo (0-1). 2B — SU: Stevenson, Camp.

SECOND GAME

South Umpqua0020410—791

St. Mary’s0000000—013

Camp, Jenks (5), Bowers (7) and Horton; Johnson, Haynes (4) and Aldrich. W — Camp. L — Johnson (4-2). 2B — SU: Stevenson, Reedy.

CASCADE CHRISTIAN 21-14, SUTHERLIN 7-4: At Sutherlin, Cascade Christian catcher Triston Wallace hit a pair of home runs in Game 2 and drove in nine runs on the day as the top-ranked Challengers rolled to a pair of five-inning victories via mercy rule to extend their winning streak to 14 games.

Wallace collected six hits on the day, including three doubles, five RBIs and two runs scored in Game 1.

Owen Thompson also homered in the nightcap to cap a day in which he recorded five hits, drove in seven and scored five runs, while Cole Shields hit a home run in Game 1 and recorded five RBIs in the twin bill.

Ashton Moody went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and picked up the victory on the hill in Game 2, allowing one earned run and five hits in a complete-game effort.

Leadoff man Cody Reece scored three runs in both games for the Challengers (16-1, 6-0 FWL), who recorded 29 hits against Sutherlin (5-11, 0-6).

FIRST GAME

Cascade Christian18570—21144

Sutherlin40030—755

Waits, Stofflet (4), Shields (4) and Wallace; Cortes, Quamme (3), Lepre (5) and McKnight. W — Waits. L — Quamme. 2B — CC: Thompson, Wallace 3; S: Flora. HR — CC: Shields.

SECOND GAME

Cascade Christian32054—14152

Sutherlin20200—452

A. Moody and Wallace; McGarvey , Lepre (5) and McKnight. W — A. Moody. L — McGarvey. 2B — CC: A. Moody, Shields. HR — CC: Thompson, Wallace 2.

Girls Tennis

SOUTH MEDFORD 7, NORTH MEDFORD 1: Led by its top doubles combination of Emerie Doell and Sarah McAllister, South Medford nearly earned a sweep of host North Medford.

Doell and McAllister handed North Medford’s Shelly Chung and Hayley Chung a 6-0, 6-1 defeat.

North’s lone win came via No. 1 singles seed Molly Milligan, who captured a third-set tiebreaker victory over South’s Reese Anderson, 4-6, 6-1 (10-3).

SINGLES: Molly Milligan, NM, d. Reese Anderson, 4-6, 6-1, 10-3; Metali Mahar, SM, d. Hadley Dunlevy, 6-4, 6-2; Abby Von Strahl, SM, d. Jenika Arias, 6-0, 6-0; Elena Hill, SM, d. Anika Loeffler, 6-0, 6-0.

DOUBLES: Emerie Doell-Sarah McAllister, SM, d. Shelly Chung-Hayley Chung, 6-0, 6-1; Molly Hungerford-Makayla Peterson, SM, won by forfeit; Abby Shuldberg-Rachel Parks, SM, won by forfeit; Avi Dionisio-Ara Mathis, SM, won by forfeit.