Benthal and Hunter-Warren shine as Portageville holds on 3-1 over Notre Dame

PORTAGEVILLE, Mo. — Behind a dominant pitching performance and some early runs, the Portageville baseball held on to defeat Notre Dame 3-1 at Meatte Field on Monday, April 24.

Trey Benthal threw a masterful game, leading Portageville (23-2) to the hard-fought victory and keeping Notre Dame (9-7) at bay throughout the game.

“The x-factor today was [Benthal] on the mound,” said Portageville coach Tyler Trover. “He did a great job early and often of setting the tone, and our defense did a great job of backing him up.”

Portageville's Beau Hunter-Warren (22) sprints for first base after a hit on Monday, April 24. (Dennis Marshall/Standard-Democrat)

Benthal earned a complete-game win after throwing seven innings and allowing one earned run on four hits with five strikeouts and one walked batter.

“He came out of the gate throwing well,” Trover continued. “When his arm is feeling good, he can run it up there in the mid-80s, but on top of that his curveball was sharp and he threw some good changeups to get some popups in the infield. He mixed some pitched up and did a good job.”

Portageville wasted no time taking control of the game, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Those runs came when Thomas Frakes singled to score Mason Adams and Beau Hunter-Warren tripled to score Frakes.

Notre Dame's Wil Morgan throws a pitch during a 3-1 loss to Portageville at Meatte Park on Monday, April 24. (Dennis Marshall/Standard-Democrat)

Hunter-Warren scored after a dropped third strike in the bottom of the fourth inning to extend the lead to 3-0.

“We picked off some fastballs and everybody barreled the baseball that inning,” Trover said. “We hoped to keep that line moving, but their pitcher did a nice job of making some adjustments in his approach and unfortunately today we didn’t do a good enough job of making those adjustments back and coming up with those big hits in scoring position.

“We feel like we left something out there,” he continued. “We didn’t get the job done driving them in, but winning is fun. Anytime you have the chance to get a win, especially against a Class 4 school that's been playing pretty well, we’ll take it.”

Portageville's Aaron Dunlap (4) takes a swing during a 3-1 win over Notre Dame at Meatte Park on MOnday, April 24. (Dennis Marshall/Standard-Democrat)

Hunter-Warren had a breakthrough day at the plate, finishing 3-for-3 with a triple, a double, a RBI and scoring a run. He also had a stolen base.

“He busted out the past few games,” Trover said. “He was struggling some, but he’s started to barrel the baseball. He hits it incredibly hard and his exit velocity is as good as anybody we got. It was good to see him have some success after all the relentless hard work he’s put in to get out of that early stump.”

Portageville’s defense did an excellent job backing up Benthal and finished the day error-free.

“Anytime you play errorless, it is such an advantage at the high school level,” Trover said. “We don’t expect them to be perfect every day, but this team has shown it can win in a variety of ways. That is exciting.

“We like those and it means a lot to us,” he continued. “It signifies the things we have been working on for years, as far as shoring up the defense and making sure that on the days that you don’t have your best at the plate, you still get the job done and give yourself a chance to win by playing good defense and pitching well.”

Notre Dame scored its lone run in the top of the sixth inning after TJ Bolen doubled to drive Logan Landewee home.

Wil Morgan took the loss after five innings of work. He allowed two earned runs on five hits with six strikeouts and two walked batters.

Eric Retz pitched the final inning for Notre Dame. He didn’t give up any runs or hits.

Portageville is on the road at Senath-Hornersville (9-4) and at Kelly (13-5) on Friday, April 28.

Notre Dame travels to Sikeston (3-12) on Tuesday, April 25, and will compete in the SEMO Conference Tournament, beginning, Friday, April 28.

__PORTAGEVILLE 3, NOTRE DAME 1__

ND 000 001 0 — 1 4 3

P’Ville 200 100 x — 3 5 0

W—Trey Benthal. L—Wil Morgan. 2B—Notre Dame: TJ Bolen. Portageville: Beau Hunter-Warren. 3B—Portageville: Beau Hunter-Warren.