Notre Dame Gets Winded After Huffing Past Crespi

If doing wind sprints in the outfield after a victory is their reward, the Notre Dame High baseball players might prefer the agony of defeat.

After beating Del Rey League rival Crespi, 12-6, at Notre Dame on Tuesday, Notre Dame Coach Bob Mandeville wasn’t pleased with his team’s performance.

“We can’t continue to do the mental things wrong,” he said. “We have some work to do defensively.”

Notre Dame committed four errors that led to five Crespi runs.

“It’s frustrating when you work on so many things in practice and then just fall apart,” he said.

Crespi Coach Scott Muckey had even less to be pleased with after his team dropped its third consecutive league game and fell to 4-7 overall.

“We stunk out there today,” he said. “We got one leadoff hitter out the whole game. It was an all-around ugly game.”

Notre Dame’s Mike Peterson (4-1) pitched a complete-game victory, allowing three earned runs on eight hits with five strikeouts. The win was Notre Dame’s first over Crespi since 1986.

“I had pretty good stuff in the early innings, but I started to get tired in the last couple,” he said.

Notre Dame (7-4, 3-0 in league play) hit six doubles, including two by center fielder Matt McElreath, and had 12 hits off two Crespi pitchers.

The Knights scored in each of the first five innings, including four runs in the third that chased losing pitcher Chad Nichols (2-4). He allowed six runs on six hits in two-plus innings.

“I wasn’t on today. I didn’t have my stuff. I kept missing on my first pitch,” Nichols said.

Crespi reliever Dan Carroll proved equally ineffective, also allowing six runs on six hits.

Notre Dame had jumped to a 1-0 lead after Kevin Crosby opened the bottom half of the first inning with a double and scored one out later on McElreath’s double. Crosby walked and scored in his next three at-bats, accounting for four runs.

“They only gave me one good pitch to hit and I swung,” Crosby said.

The only inning in which Notre Dame failed to get its leadoff hitter on base was the fifth, but the Knights scored their final three runs in that inning. Shortstop Tony Ljubetic singled and moved to second on a Carroll balk.

After Crosby walked, Ljubetic scored and Crosby moved to third on a Chad Ratliff single. Crosby scored on a fielder’s choice and Ratliff scored from second on a throwing error by Crespi catcher Mark Cavaretta.

Crespi scored single runs in the second and fifth and had two-run innings in the fourth and seventh. Ken Franco started the Crespi seventh with a walk and scored when right fielder Steve Hamilton misplayed Greg Barton’s single. John Dempsey then doubled Barton home.

After the double, Mandeville paid Peterson a visit on the mound, after which he struck out Cavaretta and retired Nichols on a popup to second.

After appearing to settle down, Peterson then walked Mark Maurizi and hit Eric Berg to load the bases. Designated hitter Don Calabria then lifted an easy popup to first baseman Kevin Milligan to end the game.