To get a better appreciation for Notre Dame's split of two low-scoring games in its season debut, one had to see the game the defending Class 4 state champions didn't play in among the three contested Saturday at Notre Dame Regional High School.
Wedged between the Bulldogs' 2-1 victory over Class 4 Priory and a 4-2 loss to Class 5 power Rock Bridge, was a game in which the two Notre Dame opponents squared off in a 25-run affair full of hits and errors. Rock Bridge emerged with a 14-11 victory.
A young Notre Dame pitching staff that lost three of its top four starters from last year's 28-win squad throttled the two teams to a total of 11 hits -- three by Priory and eight to Rock Bridge. The three doubles the Bruins had in the second game all were misplayed fly balls that could have been caught on the cool and breezy afternoon.
"I thought, especially on the mound, we were tremendous today," Notre Dame coach Jeff Graviett said. "The four guys we ran out there did a great job on the mound. You can't really appreciate what Tyler [Essner] did on the mound unless you saw them hit the baseball in the middle game against Priory. That's a solid Class 5 program with some great hitters, and he gave us an opportunity to win today. A couple plays go here or there, and we definitely had a great chance to win today. Our offense is a little bit behind, but that's kind of what we expected at this point."
Essner, a senior and the Bulldogs' most experienced pitcher, is one of the few holdovers from last year's team that graduated 13 seniors. Among the losses was Chase Urhahn, the Southeast Missourian Player of the Year, and starting pitcher Graham Ruopp, who is now pitching for the University of Missouri. Among the regulars from the state champions, only senior shortstop Ross Essner remains.
Tyler Essner, who was 5-0 with a 1.04 ERA in 27 innings last year, allowed six hits and four runs over 5 1/3 innings against Rock Bridge, which returns about half of its lineup from last year's team that lost an extra-inning affair in the Class 5 quarterfinals. Bruins coach Justin Towe said six of his eight seniors and one junior already have made college commitments.
By contrast, Notre Dame had just three seniors in the field, five juniors and one sophomore. With sophomore Will Ferrell pitching the opener against Priory, the Bulldogs had two sophomores in the field.
"We really started a lot of new guys," Graviett said. "It's been a long time since we've run a sophomore out there in the lineup, and I had a couple of them out there today. I thought they did a great job."
Notre Dame sophomore second baseman Noah Brown had the game-winning hit against Priory, while Ferrell notched the win.
"I told coach [Graviett], I don't care how young you think you are, you're still a really good ballclub," Towe said. "So I expect them to do well again."
The Bulldogs, who had five singles in the game, took advantage of a leadoff error by Rock Bridge to plate both its runs in the fourth inning. After junior Garrett Siebert's grounder was booted by the shortstop, junior Trevor Haas laid down a sacrifice bunt and junior Nick Lindsay followed with an RBI single. Lindsay took second on the throw home to try to catch Siebert, moved to third on a balk and scored on a two-out single by senior Ethan Hunter for a 2-0 lead.
The Bruins were held scoreless over the first four innings by Tyler Essner, who was touched for three runs in the fifth, where he was hurt by a combination of his own wildness and shaky defense.
"Really, we got lucky," said Towe, whose team took advantage of misplayed ball in the outfield that fell in for a double and a slow-rolling infield single that was compounded by a throwing error, both coming with two outs and scoring runs.
"The inning we gave up three runs, we had two walks, we had a ball in the outfield we could have caught and a ball on the infield we could have made a play on, but same way offensively, we had a couple of chances, but we were right there competing," Graviett said.
Essner eventually was lifted after yielding a single and walk after retiring the leadoff batter in the sixth.
Junior Winston Welter relieved Essner and hit a batter with two outs to load the bases, but he escaped the jam when leadoff batter Curtis Holiday was retired on a fly ball to right field.
Welter was touched for an unearned run in the seventh inning after retiring the first two batters.
Essner and Welter's performance against a seasoned Bruins lineup came on the heels of another strong two-pitcher outing against Priory. Ferrell allowed three hits over six innings, while Ross Essner closed out the win with a 1-2-3 seventh. Ferrell struck out six and walked just one.
"To be completely honest, I came out feeling a lot more confident in our team this year," said Tyler Essner, who had two hits in the first game and three hits on the day. "I knew this year, losing 13 seniors from last year, nobody expected us to be all that great. But coming [out of today], I think we honestly may have another chance at state and go far in the season."
Against Priory, Notre Dame plated both its runs in the bottom of the second inning on a two-out single by Brown, who was batting in the No. 9 spot.
"It was cool to be out there on the varsity for the time and get to have a big hit on my first at-bat," Brown said.
It was one of just three hits off Priory starter Robert Schallenberger, who threw six innings.
"Priory is going to be competing with the top teams in their district up there with Westminster, and Rock Bridge is one of the top teams in Class 5, so to come out there and compete with those two teams, and get a split with a new bunch of guys we've got is pretty encouraging," Graviett said.
NOTRE DAME 2, PRIORY 1
Priory 010 000 0 -- 1 3 0
Notre Dame 020 000 x -- 2 3 0
WP -- Will Ferrell (1-0). LP -- Robert Schallenberger (0-1). Multiple hits -- Priory: Ramzi Haddad 2-3; Notre Dame: Tyler Essner 2-3.
ROCK BRIDGE 4, NOTRE DAME 2
Rock Bridge 000 030 1 -- 4 8 2
Notre Dame 000 000 0 -- 2 5 2
WP -- Jack Widhalm (1-0). LP -- Tyler Essner (0-1). 2B -- Avery Jennings (RB), Cole Evans (RB), Curtis Holiday (RB). Multiple hits -- Rock Bridge: Cole Evans 3-4, Jordan Smith 2-3.
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