Bulldogs blast Devils

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Notre Dame notched its second straight win of the young season Wednesday and appears to be a team to be reckoned with.

Solid pitching and timely hitting pushed the Bulldogs to a convincing 12-3 win over defending SEMO Conference champion Chaffee at Harmon Field.

"It's a double victory for us," Jeff Graviett, Notre Dame coach, said. "It's a conference and a district win."

Although the game had to be moved from Cape Girardeau to Chaffee for better field conditions, Notre Dame remained the home team.

"We made the decision Tuesday night to play there, because I don't think our field would have been ready," said Graviett. "Chaffee has a nice facility and it gave us a chance to play on the field where the district tournament will be played."

Notre Dame (2-0) opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning when leadoff hitter Shane Kistner doubled to right-centerfield. Next batter Dustin Tatum advanced Kistner to third and he scored on a groundout by Timmy Wencewicz, who picked up his first of three RBIs.

Chaffee, held scoreless the first two innings, pushed across the tying run in the top of the third. Zac Horman's single drove home James Reischman, who had singled and advanced to second on a throwing error.

But the tie was short lived as Wencewicz blasted a two-run homer well over the left-centerfield fence to send the Bulldogs ahead 3-1 in the bottom of the third inning.

"Oh, yeah," Wencewicz said. "I was ready for it. I saw the pitch really well and just sat back and let it rip."

Notre Dame, which has shown an ability to produce runs with 25 in two games, broke the game open with six runs in the fourth.

The combination of a shaky Red Devil defense, which committed two miscues in the inning, a couple of bloop hits and two infield hits did the damage.

"We had a few blunders that kind of opened the floodgates, so to speak," Chaffee coach Brian Horrell said, "and anytime you give somebody seven outs in an inning, nothing good's going to come out of it."

Meanwhile, Notre Dame starter Scott Wittenborn (1-0) cruised. Wittenborn allowed one run on five hits in five innings of work in his first outing of the season.

"It was a good confidence booster," Wittenborn said. "For the beginning of the year, I felt I did well."

Jeff Brosey came on in relief to wrap up the victory. Chaffee scored two unearned runs off Brosey.

Chaffee's Zac Horman took the loss to even his record at 1-1.

Reischman and Robert Coomer led Chaffee with two hits each, while no Notre Dame player managed more than one.