Chris Kiehl can't pinpoint all the reasons for Lancaster Catholic's struggles early in this baseball season.

But the Crusaders' first-year coach knows this:

More than once, his defending Section Four champs have battled back from an early deficit only to fall short at the end.

Monday afternoon at sun-streaked Stumpf Field, the story was repeated. Trailing Elco 3-1 in an L-L League Sections Three-Four crossover game, the Crusaders tied the score in the seventh only to surrender seven runs in the eighth en route to a 10-3 loss.

Raiders' right-hander and staff ace Dave Superdock dueled southpaw Jamie Pashuck for seven innings to get the win. Superdock's single to start the eighth ignited the decisive rally, and he scored the eventual winning run on a delayed steal set up by Chad Horst, who drew a pickoff throw to first base on a designed play.

"When it came to execution, Elco did it better," Kiehl said after Catholic (4-3 L-L, 5-5 overall) failed to take sole control of Section Four.

"We had a chance to win and we didn't execute."

The Raiders (4-3, 5-4) took advantage of Crusader errors and base-running gaffes to stay in the thick of the Section Three race. In the process, they allowed coach Chris Weidner to answer in the affirmative when his lunch companions kid him with what has become a daily question.

"I know I must be writing the coaches' cliché manual, but I said at the beginning of the season that I'd hope we be in the mix," he said. "And every day at lunch, my colleagues ask me, 'Chris, are you in the mix?'"

That the Raiders are very much in the mix can be traced in large part to Superdock. A three-year starter, the gritty junior threw 118 pitches Monday, 70 for strikes, and relied on inside fastballs and curves and change-ups away to earn his career high-tying fourth win of the season.

He scattered five hits and did not allow an earned run while striking out eight and walking five.

Pashuck pitched impressively, too. Working behind a fastball, slider and change-up, he threw 138 pitches, 86 for strikes, struck out 10 and walked six. He surrendered six hits and just two earned runs.

Both aces benefited from sterling plays afield. In the first inning, left fielder Jared Bomba cut down a Crusader base-runner with a great peg to the plate. Right fielder Pat Warren extinguished potential Elco rallies with exceptional catches to close out the fifth and sixth innings.

"We knew it was going to be a battle," Weidner said.

For seven innings it was. But the end result signaled a familiar refrain for the reigning section champs.

"Everybody says it builds character," Kiehl said of the hard loss. "Yeah, we're a young team, but our young guys have to find themselves."