'DOGS AND DEVILS: NOTRE DAME, CHAFFEE TO CLASH FOR DISTRICT TITLE

CHAFFEE -- If there was any question as to which are the best two Class 2A teams in the area, there isn't anymore.

Top-seeded Notre Dame and No. 2 Chaffee both posted easy victories Tuesday in the District 2 Tournament at Harmon Field.

The Bulldogs crushed No. 4 Kelly 12-2 in five innings and the Red Devils disposed of No. 3 Woodland 9-0.

Chaffee (19-5) and Notre Dame (19-4) will meet in a highly anticipated championship game at 4 p.m. Thursday. The Bulldogs will start senior right-hander Mark Ostendorf (7-1) while Chaffee will go with senior right-hander Tommy Stidham (8-1).

Notre Dame vs. Kelly

The Notre Dame Bulldogs don't eat puppy chow.

They feast on nothing but the finest, top quality cuts of prime pitchers.

For the third time in the past four games, Notre Dame devoured a high quality hurler.

Last Friday, the Bulldogs took on Advance ace and soon-to-be Missouri Tiger Garrett Broshuis and roughed him up for eight runs.

Almost two weeks ago, it was Clearwater's Jamie McAlister.

This time, it was Kelly's Justin Simpher.

Notre Dame, which has won nine straight games, pounded out 14 hits off Simpher (6-3) and forced the junior out of the game in the sixth.

"We've gone against three of the best pitchers in the state going back to the Clearwater game," said Notre Dame coach Jeff Graviett. "It's exciting to me that we're scoring eight, nine runs off that quality of pitchers. That's the No. 1 part of our game hitting the baseball."

And it wasn't the Bulldogs' big bats that did the bopping. Josh Eftink and Wes Steele, Notre Dame's top run producers, combined to go 1-for-7 with one RBI.

Instead, it was Notre Dame's six through nine batters who did most of the damage. Scott Reinagel, Matt Bollinger, Adam Seyer and Todd Friend combined to go 8-for-16 with seven runs scored and five runs batted in.

Reinagel in particular had a huge day. He was just a triple shy of hitting for the cycle with two RBIs and two runs scored. Bollinger also had three hits and three RBIs, while Friend and Tommy Wencewicz had two hits apiece.

"The bottom of the order came through big-time today," said Graviett. "Simpher's a very good pitcher. After the first inning I thought we were going to have our hands full today. His curveball looked good and he was throwing hard."

Notre Dame scored four runs in the second with Reinagel's blast -- his first of the year -- getting it started. The next four batters got hits and the Bulldogs had all the runs they would need.

The Bulldogs, who constantly drove pitches to the opposite field, added four more in the third on five hits with the bottom half of the order doing most of the damage again. Notre Dame added one more in the fourth and three in the sixth.

Notre Dame hurler Brian Obermann held Kelly (13-9) to two runs on seven hits without his best stuff. He struck out three and walked none.

Simpher, who went into the game with a 1.80 earned-run average, ended up going 5 1/3 innings. He allowed all 12 runs, 10 of which were earned. Simpher went into the game having allowed just 14 earned runs the entire season. To Simpher's credit, he didn't get a lot of help from his defense as a couple of balls were misjudged in the outfield and ended up going for extra base hits instead of outs.

"You have to give credit to Notre Dame," said Kelly coach Mike Scott. "It was their day and not ours. They're just a good hitting team. I can't say that Simpher wasn't on, because he was throwing strikes. They just hit the ball. Their game plan was to take him the other way and it worked. Our game plan was to take Obermann the other way and it didn't work."

Chaffee vs. Woodland

There's no 'K' in Stroup.

But there is an `S' and an `O'-- as in S-trike-O-out and S-hut-O-ut.

Chaffee junior Matt Stroup struck out nine Woodland batters in six innings of work and dominated the Cardinals' lineup. The Red Devils also used two big innings to roll into the finals.

Chaffee scored six runs in the sixth and three in the third for its runs. The Red Devils sent nine batters to the plate in the third and the fourth.

Like Notre Dame, Chaffee got a lot of production from the bottom of the order.

No. 8 hitter Rusty Duncan was 1-for-2 but was on base three times and scored twice, while No. 9 hitter Jeremy Lynn tripled, doubled, walked and scored twice with one RBI.

"The bottom of the lineup came through today and I just hope we can find a way to get on base Thursday," said Chaffee coach Brian Horrell. "That's the key. You're not going to sit back and pound the ball against Notre Dame. You're going to have to find a way to get on base and take advantage of some breaks."

Perry Rice also had two hits for Chaffee.

Stroup went six innings and gave up just three hits, while walking just one. He pitched around trouble in the third when Woodland got runners at first and second with one out, but no Cardinal made it as far as third base against Stroup.

"Today he definitely looked sharp," said Horrell. "It was an awesome performance."

Woodland ended its fine season at 15-7.

"I'm just proud of these guys," said Woodland coach Barry Stafford. "Mentally, we were out of it a couple of times today, but we didn't lose for a lack of effort. Things just didn't work out today."