Jackson baseball team ends Notre Dame's conference win streak at 24

~ The Indians won 4-1 behind the pitching of Bartels and Clark

Notre Dame's streak of 24 consecutive conference wins and 21 consecutive home wins ended Tuesday night.

Logan Bartels and the Jackson Indians made sure of it.

Bartels outdueled Bulldogs ace Cody Heisserer to help the Indians take down Notre Dame 4-1 in front of a packed crowd.

"It was a very big win for us," Jackson coach Tatum Kitchen said. "Not only because how good Notre Dame is, but just for ourselves. We needed a good win like this."

Jackson's Logan Bartels pitches during the fourth inning Tuesday at Notre Dame. (Kristin Eberts)

Bartels, a senior, hurled five impressive innings. He allowed one run on six hits, walked four and struck out six.

Bobby Clark earned the save with two innings of relief.

Heisserer was impressive for Notre Dame as well, tossing seven innings. He allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits and four walks while striking out four.

"It felt good," Bartels said. "We came in pumped up and ready to go. We pulled it out."

It wasn't all easy for Bartels and the Indians.

Notre Dame (6-1) loaded the bases in the bottom of the first inning after two walks and a base hit. The Bulldogs stranded the runners when Jonathan Lynch tried to score on a bobbled ball by the catcher and was tagged out in a run down.

Notre Dame threatened to score again when it had runners on first and second with nobody out in the second inning, but Jackson (6-3) thwarted the effort.

Bartels struck out Nathan Beussink and the Indians caught Tyler Buelow trying to take third on the play for a strike-him-out throw-him-out double play.

"I've been doing it since I've been here, preaching aggressiveness," Notre Dame coach Jeff Graviett said. "Sometimes it works and sometimes you have innings like we had."

Jackson finally broke through in the top of third.

Bartels singled with one out and Zach McDowell put runners on the corners with one of his three hits on the night.

A little luck came in to play from there.

McDowell attempted to steal second but Heisserer spun and threw to shortstop Derek Landewee covering. Bartels broke for home and Landewee hesitated before firing home. But Bartels slid safely under the tag and McDowell took second to give Jackson a 1-0 lead.

"We got off on our signs," Kitchen said about the play. "But it looked great. I should lie and tell you it's the truth, but it really wasn't. We work on it all the time so they knew what to do when it happened, but it wasn't called. We were just stealing straight."

Jackson added another run when Clark roped a two-out RBI double in the fifth.

Notre Dame broke through in the bottom half of the inning on a Lynch double to left-center field. Eric Hayes coaxed a walk and both runners advanced to second and third on a wild pitch.

Bartels then came up with the biggest pitches of the game.

The senior struck out Heisserer, the cleanup hitter, and got Jessie Schott to pop up to the shortstop to end the threat.

"I thought Bartels did a tremendous job," Graviett said. "He kept us off balance and was able to mix his pitches in and out."

Jackson added two insurance runs in the seventh.

The Bulldogs managed one last threat, but Clark stifled it.

Campbell walked and Lynch singled to lead off the seventh, but it was as far as the Bulldogs would get.

"Our whole theory coming in here was we had to play them close the whole game because they dominate people so much," Kitchen said. "Our thing was stay with them and we'll try and beat them late."

Jackson 001 010 2 -- 4 7 1

Notre Dame 000 001 0 -- 1 8 1

WP -- Logan Bartels. LP -- Cody Heisserer. 2B -- Bobby Clark (J), Zach McDowell (J), Jonathan Lynch (ND). Multiple Hits: Jackson, McDowell 3-4. Notre Dame, Lynch 2-3, Alex Beussink 2-3, Derek Landewee 2-3. Records: Jackson, 6-3. Notre Dame, 6-1.