ND breezes to victory

~ The Bulldogs took advantage of a strong wind and defeated Perryville 15-1

Notre Dame's batters were salivating at the chance to take their hacks with a stiff wind blowing out to left field Tuesday.

"A couple times I caught myself actually trying to swing for the fence when I probably shouldn't have been," Notre Dame senior Wes Glaus said. "When the wind's blowing, you start thinking about a few more things than just base hits."

Glaus hit one of the Bulldogs' three home runs in their 15-1 victory over visiting Perryville.

"The wind was a big factor today," Glaus said. "Everybody just put contact on the ball and found the holes."

The Bulldogs also collected four doubles and had nine players drive in at least one run.

"We've been swinging the bats good all season," Notre Dame senior Colton Young said. "We've got a lot of guys swinging bats like they would midseason this early on, so it's always nice to have. And the ball carries pretty well here, so if you get something up in the air, it's probably going to go out."

While the Bulldogs pounded the baseball, it was the Pirates who struck first against Young, the Bulldogs' ace. Ethan Reiss stroked a one-out single to center field then Mitchel Lukefahr roped a two-out double to left field to stake the Pirates (0-3) to an early lead.

"I was getting ahead and not finishing them off," Young said of his first-inning struggles. "Not getting beat with my best pitch. Getting beat with a secondary pitch. After the second inning, I felt like I got ahead and started messing around with locations and started to work on other pitches."

Young settled down after the first inning and allowed the offense to provide plenty of support. He finished with eight strikeouts and no walks. Notre Dame coach Jeff Graviett said he rarely worries about Young, even when the opposition gets a couple good hacks against him.

"He keeps his composure so well," Graviett said. "He stays relaxed. I think he knew today we were going to score a lot of runs with the wind blowing out. He didn't have that good fastball in the first inning, whether he didn't get loose in the bullpen good or just didn't find it, it's early in the year."

Perryville's lead was short-lived as Jake Pewitt and Trenton St. Cin both drove in a run in the bottom of the first to erase the early deficit. Notre Dame tacked on seven in the second and six more in the fourth. Young belted a two-run homer to left in the second and Mark Hagedorn launched a two-run shot to center in the fourth.

"You've got to go out and hit line drives and try not to do too much," Young said. "If you put a good swing on it, it's going to go."

The Bulldogs got off to a hot start and put away the Pirates early. It's something Notre Dame focused on doing Tuesday.

"The first couple games, we kind of had trouble doing that," Hagedorn said. "This game, that was pretty much our main goal, to come out and get on top early."

Notre Dame is off to a 4-0 start, which extends its winning streak to 15 games. The Bulldogs last lost May 1.

"One thing we challenged them is that there's nothing better than going back-to-back," Graviett said. "State titles are a big thing up here. If kids can't get motivated about that, it's tough to get motivated."

Perryville 100 00 -- 1 5 3

Notre Dame 270 6x -- 15 14 0

WP -- Colton Young. LP -- Ethan Reiss. 2B -- Mitchel Lukefahr (P), Jimmy Obermark (ND), Ethan Essner (ND), Jeremy Essner 2 (ND). HR -- Wes Glaus (ND), Colton Young (ND), Mark Hagedorn (ND). Multiple hits -- Perryville: Reiss 2-2; Notre Dame: Obermark 2-3, Hagedorn 2-2, J. Essner 2-2. Records -- Perryville 0-3, Notre Dame 4-0.