LISBON – The defense committed untimely errors, the pitching walked three runs across the plate and six of the team’s 10 hits came off the bat of two players.

Still, Lisbon found a way to win a chilly April baseball game at home.

Derek Giusto went 3-for-3 at the plate, scored four runs and stole four bases and Jarrod Church smacked three singles to lead Lisbon past Madison 9-5 in the teams’ MVC baseball tilt on Wednesday.

As a team, Lisbon (2-0) stole 10 bases on the afternoon, putting runners in scoring position almost at will against a much improved Bulldogs squad.

“Speed kills,” Madison coach Shawn Bean said. “They have a lot of team speed and we didn’t have an answer for that today. Our catcher has a decent arm but not a great arm, and they took advantage of that.”

Madison (0-1) had its opportunities as the game wore on, and actually kept up with the Greyhounds for the first three innings. The Bulldogs sent 15 batters to the plate in the first two innings and plated four runs, but while they continued to belt hits and reach on walks, the runs dried up after the second.

“We were very erratic all around at the beginning,” Lisbon coach Randy Ridley said. “We weren’t mentally prepared to play the game at all. A win is still a win and we’ll take it, but it wasn’t pretty.”

Lisbon pitcher Tim Sautter struck out seven batters in four innings of work, but also walked eight, and his defense made four errors behind him.

“That hurt at the beginning,” Ridley said. “Tim struggled early, but then he started to throw strikes. He just didn’t seem to want to have an easy inning.”

After allowing an unearned run in the top of the first and striking out the side, Sautter started to miss his mark. In the second, after Lisbon scored two in the bottom of the first to take the lead, and after an error by the shortstop to start the inning, Sautter walked four consecutive batters, plating three runs.

After two quick strikeouts in the bottom half of the third, Lisbon got the three runs back and never trailed again.

“He buckled down when he had to,” Bean said of Sautter. “He came around in a pinch. We left 15 runners on base today, and we weren’t able to get hits at the right times.”

Chris Kates came in to pitch the final three innings for the Greyhounds and allowed just one run on three hits and two walks while striking out two.

Randy McMullen went the distance for the Bulldogs, throwing 139 pitches while allowing nine hits and issuing seven free passes. McMullen struck out seven Lisbon batters in six innings of work.

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