Notre Dame baseball passes early test, slips by Jackson in extra innings

The Notre Dame baseball team is trying to figure out where it stands after losing a cadre of key personnel from a state championship team. On Monday night it answered at least part of the question -- still ready to compete atop the conference.

After blowing a 1-0 lead over host Jackson in the bottom of the seventh, the Bulldogs battled back in extra innings, getting two runs in the top of the ninth and hanging on to defeat the Indians 3-2 in a SEMO Conference game at Whitey Herzog Stadium.

"It's definitely a confidence booster," Notre Dame senior Ross Essner said. "People expected us to be down this year after losing all the seniors and we're out to prove that we can still compete and we're going to do it one game at a time."

Notre Dame's Ross Essner steals second base as Jackson third baseman looks for the call during the first inning Monday, April 4, 2016 in Jackson.Fred Lynch

Essner boasts some of the little experience that does return for Notre Dame (4-1 overall, 1-0 SEMO Conference), and it showed on Monday as he went 3-for-4 and drove in the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly. He also picked up the win on the pitching mound, going two innings in relief.

Tied at 1 after eight innings, the bottom three hitters in the Notre Dame order got a one-out rally going, twice getting hit by a pitch to sandwich a Noah Arnzen single to load the bases for Tyler Essner. The leadoff man then walked, pushing in the go-ahead run and making things 2-1 before Ross Essner lifted a 1-0 pitch to right field to score Arnzen on a sacrifice fly for a 3-1 score.

"[Ross] is a tremendously competitive kid and he's one kid that's got a lot of experience from basketball last year going to the final four and with baseball last year," Notre Dame coach Jeff Graviett said. "If you had nine of him you'd never lose. He's the ultimate competitor and does all the little things. In that last at-bat that's probably all he was trying to do -- hit a sac fly to get an extra run home, because he knows, that two-run lead, how huge it is."

It was. Jackson (7-6, 1-1) got a leadoff walk from 8-hole hitter Drew Brown to open the bottom of the ninth before Skyler Pease singled down the third-base line. Colten Weber was then hit by a pitch before Jarrett Newell (2-for-5, RBI) put the ball in play, scoring Brown on a fielder's choice to cut the deficit to 3-2.

The Indians, though, could get no closer, leaving a runner at first base as Ross Essner got a three-pitch strikeout to end the game.

The home side stranded 10 runners in the game, including leaving the bases loaded in the fourth inning. Jackson also had the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, when Ryan Mize reached on a two-out infield single -- the third consecutive two-out hit of the frame for the Indians -- to plate Weber from third and knot things at 1. But Gavon Turner watched strike three sail by and, rather than picking up a walk-off victory, Jackson left a pair of runner's in scoring position.

"At some point you're looking to get that two-out hit, and we just didn't get that today," Jackson coach Bryan Austin said. "We've had it in the past and we won a game in extra innings because we got it. Today I was proud of how well we played defensively and the way we battled back, but at the end of the day you've still got to find a way to get those runners in from scoring position.

Notre Dame reliever Ross Essner fires a pitch to a Jackson batter during the eighth inning Monday, April 4, 2016 in Jackson.Fred Lynch

"What it comes down to is early on we left a lot of runners on base, and we've got to find a way to get them in and continue to have better at-bats. We can't have runners on base and not put the ball in play to get those runners in, especially with two outs. We've got to come through in those situations."

Tyler Essner got the start on the hill for Notre Dame, going six innings and giving up one run on six hits with five strikeouts and four walks.

Graviett only told his left-hander he was going to start -- after picking up a win over Valle Catholic on Friday -- when the team got to the stadium, and he responded with a strong outing.

"He didn't know he was pitching until we got here," Graviett said. "Friday he threw 80 pitches at Valle, [but] I really thought he was our best matchup with Jackson today. So I told him, 'Hey, we're going to run you out there for five [innings] and see what we can get and go from there.' He battled and wanted to go in the sixth and probably would have gone in the seventh if I had let him, but with the back-to-back and short rest and that type of stuff we took him out, but what a gutsy performance he had."

Tyler Essner's biggest moment came when Jackson put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the fourth inning in a scoreless game. A pair of singles by Braeden Dobbs and Triston Thele put pressure on the pitcher, who then walked Brown to load things up. But a 5-3 groundout left the Indians unscathed and marked one of a few missed opportunities for the hosts.

"I think their pitcher did a really good job of keeping us off balance with the fastball and changeup, and then the curveball," Austin said. "It kept us off balance a lot. Our approach was to try to go the other way, and we just couldn't get it done in those spots."

With a swirling wind making it hard for either team to drive the baseball, Notre Dame had its share of offensive sluggishness as well, managing just three hits through five innings against Indian starter Gavon Turner. Turner had a no-decision in seven innings of work, giving up one run on six hits with seven strikeouts and two walks.

Jackson left fielder Triston Thele dives to catch a Notre Dame fly ball during the first inning Monday, April 4, 2016 in Jackson.Fred Lynch

The Bulldogs scored that run in the top of the sixth, taking advantage of a leadoff infield single by Tyler Essner to spark a string of three straight base hits, capped by an RBI single by Garrett Siebert.

Weber ultimately took the loss on the mound for the home side, throwing two innings in relief and giving up two runs on one hit with four strikeouts, two walks and two hit batters.

Will Ferrell had a chance to close the game out for ND in the bottom of the seventh, but Mize's infield single cost him the save. Ferrell had gone 0-2 on Weber with two outs before the hitter slapped the ball between third base and the glove of Ethan Hunter.

"He really had a chance to close [the game] there at the end and he kept battling," Graviett said. "We're going to rely on him a lot come the end of the year, so ... our thinking is we want to get him in as many of those situations as we can throughout the year to get him prepared for the end. I thought he did well today -- even though he gave up the lead, he came within one strike of making it a 1-2-3 inning."

That didn't happen, but the Bulldogs bounced back two innings later to seal the victory.

"Once they tied it up to go to extra innings, being here in Jackson and us only have one returning starter, I really thought it was going to be tough to get the win today," Graviett said. "But our kids stayed in there and battled and showed me a lot of heart today and I'm very proud of the effort.

"We keep talking about we're trying to figure out where we're at with all the new faces. Each day we keep making strides and each day we say we need to keep getting better. ... Getting a win over them, I really thought Jackson and Bluff would be the two teams to beat in terms of the conference, and we got a win over one of them today. But if we don't come out tomorrow and get a win over Cape Central, it really doesn't mean a whole lot. So we've got to bounce back and be ready to go tomorrow."

The Bulldogs are right back at it tonight on the road against the Tigers. First pitch is at 6 p.m.

Jackson travels to New Madrid County Central on Thursday.

Notre Dame 000 001 002 -- 3 7 0

Jackson 000 000 101 -- 2 7 0

WP -- Ross Essner. LP -- Colten Weber. Blown save -- Will Ferrell. Multiple hits -- Notre Dame: Ross Essner 3-4. Jackson: Jarrett Newell 2-5.