Notre Dame lives up to top billing in Class 3

~ NOTRE DAME collected its 29th win of the season with an 18-4 victory against Carl Junction in the state championship game.

SPRINGFIELD -- Notre Dame turned to one of its players who's been in pressure-packed situations at the state tournament before.

As Notre Dame clung to a two-run lead entering the final inning at the Class 3 state baseball championship game Saturday, Ryan Bass offered some motivation.

"I have a lot of experience with winning two state titles in soccer," he said. "I just wanted to keep everyone's head in it."

Bass said that he knew that if his team could string together a few hits, good things would happen.

"I told them all we had to do was put the ball in play and they will make errors," Bass said.

His advice worked.

Notre Dame's offense went on a rampage that started when catcher Mark Hagedorn blasted a two-run homer to left field.

It was capped 12 batters later when Wesley Glaus smashed a three-run homer to give Notre Dame a 14-run cushion against Carl Junction.

"We just knew we couldn't give up," Glaus said. "Two runs wasn't that big of a lead for us."

Notre Dame scored 12 runs in the seventh inning to rout Carl Junction 18-4 and win the Class 3 state championship at Meador Park. It was Notre Dame's first state baseball championship since 1993 and fourth in the program's history.

Winning pitcher Dylan Drury recorded the final two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning on a 4-6-3 double play. Right after Glaus, the first baseman, squeezed the ball, Notre Dame players rushed to the mound to mob Drury.

Hagedorn had been struggling at the plate before the title game. He delivered at the perfect time, going 3-for-3 with two RBIs Saturday. His homer was a big one as Notre Dame held a two-run lead before his blast cleared the fence in left-center field.

"I was having trouble hitting yesterday," Hagedorn said, "but I had confidence going into today."

Notre Dame wouldn't stop scoring after Hagedorn's shot.

Ten of Notre Dame's next 12 batters would score, pushing the lead to double digits. In all, 13 batters reached safely in the seventh. Glaus' home run that inning was his second of the game.

The majority of Notre Dame's runs in the seventh came with two outs, and it was helped by two Carl Junction errors. Carl Junction committed four errors in the game.

"We saw that they struggled defensively in their semifinal game against Fulton," Notre Dame coach Jeff Graviett said. "A lot of their errors were committed when they were down."

Notre Dame banged out 10 hits in the seventh. Trenton St. Cin, Jake Pewitt and Aaron Tomaszewski each had two-run singles during the rally while Colton Young added an RBI single.

Graviett finally won the championship that has escaped him for 11 seasons and four previous final four appearances in baseball.

"It feels great to get close this many times and finally get one," Graviett said.