Notre Dame has the hits, but wins on a late error

Notre Dame's 10-9 win Tuesday over Scott City featured several lead changes, comebacks and big hits.

It ended less dramatically on an error on a routine grounder in the bottom of the seventh inning at Notre Dame Regional High School.

"It's kind of ironic that it should end on a ground-ball error," Notre Dame coach Jeff Graviett said, "when we were hitting the ball well all day, but right at people."

Scott City hit the ball well, too. The Rams out-hit Notre Dame 13 to 11, but couldn't match the Bulldogs' fence-clearing power that produced three crucial home runs.

With the SEMO Conference game tied at nine and Notre Dame (8-1, 6-1) batting in the bottom of the seventh, Matt Wulfers, leading off the inning, singled and stole second. But Wulfers inadvertantly stepped off the bag and was tagged out, erasing the potential winning run.

The next hitter, winning pitcher Jeff Brosey (2-0), singled on a slow roller, then advanced to second on a groundout by Scott Wittenborn.

The next batter, Dustin Tatum, hit a grounder that looked like a sure third out, but the ball rolled under the glove of the Scott City shortstop, allowing Brosey to score from second.

"When you're playing a quality program and you're in the game, you can take some positives out of it," Scott City coach Mike Umfleet said, "but we're disappointed. We felt like it's a game we should have won and we had our chances."

Scott City (3-4, 0-3) scored one in the first to take a brief lead before the Bulldogs came back with five in the second. With Notre Dame up 6-4 going into the fourth, the Rams scored five to take a 9-6 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, back-to-back home runs by Timmy Wencewicz and Kyle Diveley closed the gap to 9-8.

Wencewicz wasn't done yet.

"I'm not going to let Scott City come to my place and win," Wencewicz said. "When I came to the plate, I thought somebody's got to step up and I wanted to be the spark plug."

Fittingly, in the bottom of the sixth, he blasted his fourth home run of the season to straightaway centerfield to tie the score at nine.

Diveley led Notre Dame with three hits. Luke McClellan paced Scott City with three hits, two doubles and a single.

llewis@semissourian.com

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