'DOGS LIVE UP TO TOP SEED

The St. Vincent baseball team came into Cape Girardeau Tuesday afternoon for its game against Notre Dame in a bit of a foul mood.

The Indians were a little upset about the fourth-place seed they were given by the coaches in their 2A district, which includes top-seed Notre Dame, No. 2 Scott City and No. 3 Kelly.

Playing against the No. 1 team in the upcoming district tournament seemed like the perfect time to show the other teams in the district a thing or two, but the Bulldogs scored three times in their final two at-bats for an 8-5 win.

The win solidified Notre Dame's stance as the team to beat in the district as the Bulldogs improved to 13-3. St. Vincent, which earlier in the season beat Kelly and expected to be placed above the Hawks, fell to 11-7.

Notre Dame pounded the ball all over the park for 10 hits. Five of those safeties went for extra bases and several other hard hit balls were tracked down by the Indians' defense.

"We really put the barrel of the bat on the ball," said Notre Dame coach Gregg Muench. "Even though we flew out most of the time we really hit the ball solid a lot."

Shortstop Dan Wittenborn led the Bulldog batters with a 3-for-4 performance, including two triples. Wittenborn ripped triples into both outfield gaps and scored two runs.

"The last week Dan has just been on a tear," said Muench, who thought Wittenborn had a perfect day at the plate despite grounding out in the first.

"The one time he made an out was when he went the other way with a pitch and moved a runner to third base with a groundout to second," Muench said. "He gave himself up for the team and that's fantastic."

Wittenborn's unselfish at-bat helped move Chris Canfield, who opened the inning with a single, to third where he scored the Bulldogs first run on freshman Josh Eftink's sacrifice fly to make the score 1-0.

Canfield also went the distance on the mound to even his record at 3-3. St. Vincent sophomore Dusty Wengert (1-2) pitched all six innings for the Indians in the loss.

Trailing 5-2, St. Vincent rallied with three runs in the fifth inning. Indian shortstop Jonathan Wengert, currently batting .491 (27-for-55), started the rally with a base-circling triple to left-center. Wengert had what looked to be an easy standup triple, but when the relay throw from the outfield was overthrown, Wengert didn't break stride around third and slid safely into home to make the score 5-3.

Wengert, a collegiate baseball and football prospect, added a double to total two of the Indians six hits. Tyler Sauer ripped a two-run double in the second inning to give the Indians their only lead of the game 2-1.

Nathan McGuire (two doubles), Trent Summers and Ryan LeGrand all added two hits for the Bulldogs.

Notre Dame will host New Madrid today.