JEFFERSON TWP — When Curt Schnur is on the mound for the Saxonburg Eagle County League baseball team, his philosophy is a simple one: Get ahead of the hitter, throw strikes and don't try to get too fancy.

When Schnur is coaching baseball at Knoch HighSchool, he hammers home the same message to his pitchers.

They are listening.

Knights' starter Zach Mayes scattered three hits in 5 Qe innings and closer EricChristensen used only seven pitches to get three outs in the seventh for a save as Knoch downed Freeport 5-2 at Laura Doerr Park Tuesday afternoon.

"Our philosophy is to go right after hitters, especially get the first-pitch strike in there," Schnur said. "We want to jump ahead of guys, and it's nice to see these guys buying into that philosophy and not worrying about what the guy is going to do hitting it.

"Most of the time guys don't swing first pitch."

Freeport didn't. The second pitch, though, was another story.

The Yellowjackets (1-1) helped the Knoch pitchers with their tendency to swing early in the count and hit the baseball hard — right at Knights fielders.

"We didn't get the hops we needed to get today," said Freeport coachChris Graczyk. "We need some of those hits to fall in."

Instead, Mayes cruised through his start, giving up two runs, but only one was earned.

He got into a jam in the sixth inning, putting runners on first and second with one out, but Knoch pitcher Derrick Clark came in to get a force out at third and a pop-up right back to the mound to end the threat.

Christensen then pitched a perfect seventh inning, using those seven pitches to get a strikeout and two weak groundouts.

In a win onMonday, Christensen threw only nine pitches to earn the victory.

"Eric is probably going to work in a closer situation for us," Schnur said. "He throws strikes and has a hard curveball-slider you can call it."

Knoch (3-0) scored its first run against Freeport starter Randy Bollinger on an RBI double by No. 9 hitter Justin Thompson in the second inning.

The Knights took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the third on a soaring two-run home run to left by No. 3 hitter Austin Leffler, who has driven in seven runs in the last two games.

"We have some guys who can hit the ball," Schnur said. "We're going to score some runs. We put Austin at No. 3 to put him in situations like that the last two days, and it has worked out for him."

Knoch padded its lead with two more runs in the fifth inning on RBI singles by Clark and Christensen.

The Knights already have played three games and have games scheduled for the next three days.

When asked when the last time was that Knoch played that many games before April 1, Schnur simply smiled and shrugged.

"It's been a while," Schnur said. "But, that's the hope. Our hope is to get all of our non-section games out of the way before the section. Different people have different philosophies. With limited pitching, you want all the pitching you can have for the section."

Freeport 001 100 0—2 3 2Knoch 012 020 x—5 6 2WP: Zach Mayes (5 Qe IP) 3 strikeouts, 2 walks.

LP: Randy Bollinger (5 We IP) 2 strikeouts, 1 walk

Freeport (1-1): Tom Ferrante RBI; J.P. Samay 1B; Bollinger 1B; Cory Massart 1B

Knoch (3-0): Dan Pickard 1B; Austin Leffler HR, 2-RBI; Justin Demek 2B; Eric Christensen 1B, RBI; Justin Thompson 2B,RBI; Derrick Clark 1B, RBI

Today: Freeport at Mars; Knoch at Burrell