Baseball: Dugan powering Notre Dame to the top

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Too bad Notre Dame doesn’t share the same team mascot as its South Bend namesake. Otherwise, Kelly Dugan would fit in perfectly with his surroundings.

Unfortunately, he of the very-Irish sounding surname will have to be content with being the top hitter on one of the region’s best teams.

Heading into its second-round bout with Harvard-Westlake on Friday, the Knights’ favorite designated hitter is batting .500 with with 12 RBIs and a home run.

Along with fellow bat-crackers Nik Rodarte, Hayden Hunter and Casey Ryan, Dugan has played a mighty role in Notre Dame’s 14-2 season and is a big reason some people think the Knights will beat Crespi for the Mission League title.

However, as my colleague Sean Ceglinsky mentioned, we’re going to have to wait about a month to see if Dugan & Co. are up to the task of beating their 101 rivals. I think this two-game showdown at the end of the season is the perfect way to decide a league championship and the unofficial king of the Valley.

-- Austin Knoblauch