Notre Dame surges late, but Dexter holds for third

The top two seeds in the SEMO Conference Tournament played for a title, just not for the one they wanted the most.

Second-seeded Dexter (12-4) squeaked past top-seeded Notre Dame (13-5) 9-8 to claim third place in the tournament Monday at Capaha Field.

Dexter broke out of a nine-inning scoring drought with a nine-run third inning and then withstood a last-inning comeback attempt to defeat the Bulldogs.

The Bearcats were no-hit Saturday by Sikeston in a 7-0 defeat and fell behind 3-0 to Notre Dame after two innings.

Notre Dame scored one in the first inning on an RBI single by Matt Wulfers and added two more in the second against Dexter starter Eric Bowling.

With the bases loaded and nobody out, Dexter went to the bullpen for Josh Miller, who sat Notre Dame down without further damage.

"The key was Josh Miller coming in with the bases loaded and nobody out and not giving up a run," Dexter coach Brian Becker said. "He did a heck of a job."

Then, the Bearcats snapped out of their recent offensive slump with five hits wrapped around a couple of Notre Dame miscues.

"We didn't get a whole lot of hits, but we sure took advantage of the ones we got," Becker said.

Timely base hits by Willy Dooley, Eric Thomley, Matt Burnett and Bowling drove home runs for Dexter against Notre Dame sophomore starter Blake Urhahn, who was charged with six earned runs.

"I wanted to give him a couple more hitters and see how he would battle back and handle adversity," Notre Dame coach Jeff Graviett said of his decision to stay with Urhahn. "Sometimes you've got to take your lumps with your young ones to get them to learn something, and that's what we did."

But the Bulldogs weren't finished. They put together a five-run seventh inning rally to pull to within one run.

Following a three-run double by Dustin Klipfel, who went 3-for-3, the Bulldogs had a runner on third with one out with two of their top hitters coming up.

Dexter reliever Justin Sander retired Shane Kistner on a flyout to left field and struck out Timmy Wencewicz to end the Notre Dame threat.

llewis@semissourian.com

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