Notre Dame Raggedy in 4-3 Setback : High school baseball: In St. Paul tournament, Knights make four errors and don’t hit in clutch while losing to La Mirada.

What figured to be a relatively easy victory for Notre Dame High in the first round of the St. Paul baseball tournament on Thursday turned out to be an ugly loss.

The Knights (8-2) looked sloppy and lacked the kind of offensive power that has made them so successful this season. The result was a 4-3 loss to La Mirada, which started a sophomore pitcher in his first varsity appearance.

Notre Dame committed four errors and left men on base in six innings. That included what could have been the tying and winning runs in the seventh.

With Notre Dame trailing, 4-3, Rich Igou led off the seventh for the Knights by drawing a walk. After two fly outs, Allen Jerkens singled to left, but first baseman Chris Crowley hit a deep fly to center to end the game.

“Our bats were down,” Notre Dame Coach Tom Dill said. “But I think the real difference here was defense. They were hitting easy ground balls and we couldn’t get them.”

La Mirada scored the winning run on a throwing error by Jerkens in the top of the seventh. With two out and the score tied, La Mirada’s Greg Rudiger hit a grounder that Jerkens scooped up and threw about a foot in front of Crowley. La Mirada’s Jeff Nicolini, who led off with a single, scored from third on the play.

The Matadores got two additional runs--in the second and fifth innings--on Notre Dame errors. Their only earned run came in the first when catcher Jeff Hallock drove in Rudiger with a double to center.

Notre Dame starting pitcher Andy Lutz went six innings. The left-handed junior gave up six hits, struck out five and walked two. Freshman Juan Montes (0-1) took the loss for Notre Dame.

The Knights scored in the first on Jon Lichterman’s run-scoring single. In the fourth, Ryan Benner scored from third when La Mirada first baseman Brett Darnell missed Jabbar Craigwell’s soft grounder.

Crowley drove in the tying run with a two-out single to left in the fifth. Lichterman, who had singled to center, scored.

Hallock went three for three for La Mirada with two doubles and an RBI. Nicolini went two for two.

Sophomore left-hander Ben Orr pitched the first four innings for La Mirada. Jereme Garza, who worked the fifth and sixth, earned the victory and Hallock got the save.