To say the Marquette baseball team has started this season strong would be an understatement.

The Crusaders (4-0) kept things rolling in Monday’s contest at Newark, as they scored 11 runs in the second inning and eventually posted a 21-1 triumph over the Norsemen in five innings.

Marquette had 21 hits off five different Newark pitchers and is now hitting .555 as a team for the season. The Crusaders have outscored their opponents 69-2. It was also the third game this season the Crusaders have scored double-digit runs in a single inning.

“These first four games we have put together competitive at-bats, and we’re not giving away outs,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “We have shown a lot of patience at the plate, and that will be a continued key for us throughout the season.

“These guys are hungry, and like I keep telling them, the time you don’t show up hungry is the time we’re going to get beat.

“We know big innings like we’ve had aren’t going to happen in every game we play, but right now it’s happening. We’ve done a really good job offensively so far ,and we’ll just keep on working to get better.”

Marquette starting and winning pitcher Anthony Couch (2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K) and reliever Caden Durdan (3 IP, 2 H, 0ER, 1 BB, 3 K) were both efficient.

“We felt coming into the season our pitching would be solid, and it has been in the small sample size we’ve played,” Hopkins said. “I feel like if we can play good defense behind our pitchers, we have a good chance to win.”

Jaxsen Higgins led Marquette with four hits, including a double, and two RBI. Couch had three hits with a two-double in the second, RBI single in the fourth and finally an opposite-field, three-run homer to right in the fifth.

Easton Debernardi also had three hits and two RBIs, including following Couch’s fifth-inning blast with one of his own, while Durdan also had three hits.

Griffin Dobberstein (triple), Alec Novotney (double, three RBIs) and Braxton Nelle (RBI) each posted a pair of hits.

Grant Dose had two RBIs, while Billy Galyen and Grady Dose drove in single runs.

Newark (1-3) scored its run in the third. Colin Shields led off the inning reaching on an error, moved to second on an infield hit by Jacob Seyller and scored on a base hit by Kiptyn Bleuer.

Bleuer suffered the loss after allowing six hits and six earned runs in an inning and a third.

“This was our fourth game in five days, so we knew today might be a little rough, especially pitching-wise,” Newark coach Josh Cooper said. “We knew coming in Marquette has run-ruled the first three teams they’ve played. So the goal was to obviously win, but if not to at the least make them play seven innings. We weren’t able to do that.

“Now we have a few days off before we head south to Jacksonville to play over the weekend. These first four games have all been against teams from higher classes, and while we are 1-3, I feel like these games are going to make us better and help us learn more in the future. We had been competitive up to today, so we just have to let this one go and get ready for Friday.”

Marquette opens Tri-County Conference play Tuesday in a game at Midland.