UNLIKELY LONG BALL PROPELS BULLDOGS

Entering Wednesday's baseball showdown for first place in the SEMO Conference at Cape Girardeau Central's Tiger Field, Notre Dame senior shortstop Dan Wittenborn had never hit a home run out of the park.

Sure, with his speed, he'd hit a few inside-the-park homers in all his days of summer league baseball growing up. But at 5-foot-10, 165-pounds, Wittenborn was hardly looked to as a power hitter ... until now.

Wittenborn lofted a three-run home run just over the left field fence in front of the Tiger scoreboard in the sixth inning to break a 7-7 tie in the Bulldogs' 10-8 win.

The win, Notre Dame's 11th straight, clinched the Bulldogs' second consecutive conference championship as they improved to 20-3 overall and 6-2 in the league. Central, lead by the spirited play of third baseman Tatum Kitchen, fell to 12-12 and 4-4.

Kitchen had put Central on top in the bottom of the fifth with a monumental two-run homer, well over the Tiger scoreboard and nearly to the Central Junior High over 400 feet away. Notre Dame starter Chris Canfield (4-3) gave up the blast that put the Tigers on top 7-6.

But Notre Dame loaded the bases in the top of the sixth against Central starter Craig Ringwald (3-4). With one out, Wittenborn went to the plate with the sacks jammed. But a wild pitch scored pinch runner Nathan Essner to tie the score.

With runners on second and third, Wittenborn finally connected for his first-ever jog around the bases.

"It felt pretty good and I got it up in the wind," said Wittenborn of his game-breaking homer. "When I hit it I was thinking `please go ... get out of here.'"

The ball listened, sailing over the left-field fence near the Tiger scoreboard. Wittenborn admitted his homer wasn't quite as impressive as Kitchen's but had no regrets about the result of his blast.

"That's all right," he said with a laugh, "I'll take a home run any way I can get it."

The home run was just another surprising result for Wittenborn, who earlier in the contest made a few costly errors in the field.

"This was a tough game for Dan because he made two errors and usually he's very sure-handed," Notre Dame coach Gregg Muench said. "But it just shows the kind of kid he is. He was able to battle through that, leave the errors on the field and hit the ball when he had to."

Leading 10-7, Muench went to his pitching ace Nathan McGuire to close out the win. McGuire, who leads the team with a 10-0 record, struggled in the sixth as he walked two and allowed an unearned run to make it a two-run game.

But McGuire closed out the win in the seventh, allowing only a two-out single by Jeff Beasley, for the save.

"This was fun, but it's always fun to play Central," Muench said. "They're so good fundamentally and its just fun to play good teams because we had to raise our level of play."

Notre Dame certainly had to work for its 20th win of the year in the back-and-forth game. The Bulldogs trailed 3-1 after the third and 5-3 after four innings before rallying.

Notre Dame freshman Josh Eftink got things rolling for the Bulldogs with his seventh home run of the year, over the right-field fence in the first. Eftink added two doubles.

Central got an unearned run in the bottom of the inning, then went on top with two runs in the third. Shane Gibson scored Greg Craft with a single, then scored on a Kitchen triple. Kitchen was 2-for-4 with three RBIs.

"Tatum came to play and had a great all-around game," Central coach Steve Williams said. "He was very focused, he ran the bases aggressively and was one of our best players."

With the score 5-3, Notre Dame ripped three straight doubles in the fifth to score three runs. The key hit was a two-out fly ball to right field by McGuire that Central right fielder Brian Beard lost in the sky. The ball dropped well over Beard's head for two-run double and Trent Summers scored McGuire with another double to put the Bulldogs on top 6-5.

Both teams are back in action today, Central hosting Perryville and Notre Dame visiting Charleston.