1A, 2A DIAMOND QUESTS: ND MEETS VALLEY PARK IN SEMIS

Notre Dame has already emerged from the Valley of Death.

But to get to the pearly gates of Class 2A baseball heaven, the Bulldogs must conquer Valley Park this morning at Simmons Field in Columbia. The first pitch is slated for 11.

The state semifinal pits two teams who have won postseason games in their final at-bats and Valley Park has done it twice.

It took a two-out, two-run double by Wes Steele for the Bulldogs (25-3) to win their sectional game.

The Hawks, meanwhile, won their quarterfinal game in the eighth inning Saturday, a 5-3 victory over Lutheran North. Valley Park (21-1) also won its district title 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh.

So it goes without saying that both teams feel fortunate to be playing at the home of the Missouri Tigers.

But fortunate is one thing. Satisfied is another.

"We're not going up there to lose," said Notre Dame coach Chris Neff. "We're going up there to win it all. All but two of these guys have a chance at this again next year. But we have to get them to understand that this is a rare thing.

"There are a number of teams sitting at home watching, like we did the past three or four years when we felt we should have been here but never did. We need to take advantage of it right now. We're not going down there to have a good time. We're going to go down all business and we're going to try to take care of business."

Valley Park coach Brent Gregston is taking a less-urgent approach.

"We're just fortunate to be in this," he said. "We're really not too concerned about Cape Notre Dame right now. We're just going up there to have fun.

"I know they play good ball down there. Most of the fun is just getting to Columbia. We just need to play the best we can."

Valley Park and Notre Dame will both send their No. 1 pitchers to the mound.

For Notre Dame, Brian Obermann (9-1, 1.50 earned run average) will get the call. Obermann, a left-hander, won the district semifinal. He got the save in the district championship game and recorded the win in the sectional game.

Valley Park will send its ace Brian Leuthauser to the hill. Leuthauser is 5-1 with a 2.36 ERA. The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder has fanned 57 in 50.3 innings pitched.

"He throws the ball hard and throws a nice breaking pitch," said Gregston of the right-hander.

Leuthauser, a senior, is also the team's leading hitter. He boasts a .507 batting average and leads the team with five home runs and 35 RBIs.

The Hawks have a team batting average of .372 and average 10.6 runs per game. Valley Park has five players who have scored at least 20 runs this season. Of the nine Hawk batters with at least 27 at-bats, only two have batting averages above .400. All nine are batting at least .316, though.

The winner will play the winner of the Eugene (17-1) and St. Pius X (14-5) game at 5 p.m. Thursday. The losers will play for third place at 11 a.m. Thursday.