Late Uprising Lifts Notre Dame to Win

Just when it seemed as if scratching and clawing would decide Friday’s Mission League baseball game between Notre Dame and Crespi highs, things became explosive.

Cesar Martinez’s one-out, bases-loaded triple triggered a five-run eighth inning for Notre Dame, then the Knights withstood a three-run Crespi rally in the bottom half of the inning to post a 7-5 win at Valley College.

The victory moved Notre Dame (9-2-1, 5-1 in league play) two games ahead of the Celts (9-4, 3-3) in the Mission standings. All four of Crespi’s losses have come at Valley.

“The way things were going, I thought we were going to wind up playing for one run,” Notre Dame Coach Bob Mandeville said. “Then we had a five-run lead and thought we could just throw strikes and get out of it. But I guess we had to make it interesting.”

Actually, if tactical maneuvering is your thing, the first seven innings weren’t bad.

Sacrifice bunts, pinch-runners, force plays and frequent meetings of the mind dominated the game.

Crespi took a 1-0 first-inning lead when Jim Horacek’s sacrifice fly drove in Brodie VanWagenen.

Notre Dame led, 2-1, after scoring single runs in the third and fourth innings off Crespi right-hander Phillip Aghajanian (2-3). Martinez, who was two for five, singled home Francisco Dongo for the first run and Dongo had a run-scoring single in the fourth.

“They were hitting the ball all day and we were just pitching out of it,” Crespi Coach Scott Muckey said.

In the sixth, Muckey used three pinch-runners to try to pull Crespi even. One of them, Shawn Sholtis, scored on Jeff Suppan’s single to center.

In the seventh, Crespi loaded the bases but could not break the tie.

Notre Dame broke through an inning later. Four batters after Martinez’s triple, Cesar Hernandez followed with a two-run single. Notre Dame finished with 15 hits.

Crespi, which managed seven hits, scored in its half of the eighth on a bases-loaded groundout by Casey Snow and a passed ball that allowed Suppan to score from third. Dan Arnold drew a bases-loaded walk to drive in the other run.