Paul Lacassagne could have stayed in the game. So, too, could have Alex Lapara and Harold Toscano.

And that was only for Holy Cross.

Jesuit head coach Tim Parenton also likely would have let Kyle Tortorich and Alex Roeling continue to pitch.

But he didn’t, and Holy Cross head coach Greg Battistella didn’t let his pitchers go too long with the regular season knocking on playoff’s door.

Nevertheless, someone had to win, and after a bumpy few innings to begin the game, the Blue Jays held on 10-7 to defeat their old Catholic League rival.

“It’s a good win,” Jesuit senior first baseman and pitcher Stephen Luckinovich said. “They’re kind of a rival.”

Luckinovich picked up the save, giving up one hit after Roeling, a junior, turned off the spigot. Roeling relieved Tortorich, who picked up the win despite giving up seven hits and seven runs in 2 1/3 innings.

For Jesuit (21-10), the best news wasn’t that it picked up the win. Rather, assistant coach Kenny Goodlett said it was seeing what the teams’ relievers could do in a pinch.

“Luke came in and did a good job for us, pumping the fastball in and having good control of (it),” Goodlett said. “Alex came in and did a great job for the short period he did and building confidence. That’s the main thing right now, is getting out of district and into the playoffs building confidence.”

Yet, Battistella wasn’t upset with the outcome…sort of.

“It’s kind of hard to coach games you want to win more than life itself, but you know in the back of your mind you can’t extend yourself or hurt yourself,” he said. “We had a bunch of pitchers on pitch counts.”

There was still a game to be played, and Jesuit jumped out early thanks to a fielding error by Holy Cross (22-12-1).

Tigers’ rightfielder Blake Crombie misplayed a ball hit to him, allowing Jesuit leadoff hitter Cory Guidry to reach safely. Instead of there being one out, Jesuit took advantage, bringing its first three batters around to score for an early 3-0 lead.

“We miss the first fly ball of the game and we scored it an error and that set the tone for the game,” Battistella said. “Instead of getting an out, we give up three runs.”

Each team put up a run in the second.

And then the third inning came around.

The Blue Jays threw up five runs in the top half, eventually chasing Lacassagne, Holy Cross’ starter.

It started when Joe Morse homered to left-center to begin the inning. Lacassagne hit Joe Palmer with a pitch. Luckinovich brought him home with a double.

Manny Estrada walked, pushing Luckinovich to second, then Scott Cronin singled to left bringing Luckinovich home. Guidry singled up the middle bringing Estrada home and putting Cronin on second.

Chad Guidry singled to load the bases, and Mason Katz’ groundout to third brought Cronin home for a 9-1 lead.

The inning was far from over. Holy Cross made sure of it.

Kal Bonura got the rally going with a double to right. Joe Broussard’s double pushed Bonura across home plate. A batter later, LSU-signee Matty Ott blasted a two-run homer to left, and suddenly, the Tigers had cut into Jesuit’s lead to the tune of 9-4.

They weren’t done. Colin Kitto doubled, Crombie walked and Bret Bonura singled to load the bases. Tortorich walked Toscano and the score was 9-5. Two more runs scored a batter later on an error by Jesuit’s Cory Guidry.

After coming into the bottom of the third down eight runs, Holy Cross cut the deficit to 9-7.

But that’s all it would get back as Roeling and Luckinovich shut the Tigers down, giving up one hit over the final four innings.

“Right before the playoffs, it’s important for us to come out of the pen and throw strikes and make them beat us,” Goodlett said.

“That was huge,” Luckinovich said. “We started swinging the bats and putting up the runs and not just waiting until the last inning to get runs. I like how we swung the bats going into the playoffs.”

Still, Holy Cross showed some mettle to hang in and not give up. And that’s what Battistella liked the most about Monday’s game.

“By playing Brother Martin and Jesuit in the last two games, we’re not going to see any better pitching in the state of Louisiana than we saw (Sunday) and today,” he said.

Jesuit has won 11 of its past 12 games with one left against Acadiana on Friday. Holy Cross’ regular season is finished.