Notre Dame's huge 6th inning dooms South Harrison

Fitch laid down a bunt that traveled maybe five inches down the first-base line but stopped in fair territory, allowing him to reach first and loading the bases with no one out.

His bunt set the stage for the rest of the inning as the Fighting Irish scored six runs, enough to overcome South Harrison’s late rallies and hold on for a 9-8 victory on the road.

“He hasn’t played since little league, I put him in a pinch-hit situation to bunt guys into scoring position, and he put a perfect bunt down,” Notre Dame coach Trenton Lehasky said. “He has literally not put a perfect bunt down in batting practice or anything, so it was special to see that, and that got us going. An inexperienced kid off the bench coming in a tight game like that was awesome to see, so that got us going.”

After a run scored on a wild pitch, RBI singles by Tyler Marra and Preston Heslep tied the game at 7. Heslep eventually scored on a passed ball, giving the Fighting Irish an 8-7 lead. Connor Sandreth followed with an RBI single to deep right center field, giving Notre Dame a 9-7 lead.

The Hawks committed seven errors on the night.

“The thing that happened is we were booting the ball around,” South Harrison coach Frank Tate said. “We were giving them extra outs in the innings, that’s what it is. If you go back and count how many unearned runs we gave up, I couldn’t keep count.”

But the Hawks didn’t go quietly. Luke Hefner led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a walk, and after Seth Gain’s single to left field advanced Hefner to second, Layton Wageman popped out to Notre Dame starting pitcher Cole Goldizen.

Goldizen fired to first in an attempt to get a second out, but the throw got away from the Notre Dame first baseman, which advanced Hefner to third base and Gain to second. Hefner later scored on a wild pitch, cutting the Hawks’ deficit to 9-8.

Goldizen got the win on the mound. He pitched six innings and allowed eight runs (five earned) on 12 hits with with two walks and eight strikeouts.

Marra took the mound in the seventh inning, and after striking out the first batter he faced, hit Spencer Morgan with a pitch and walked Cam Evans and Hefner to load the bases with two outs.

That brought up Seth Gain, who worked a full count before striking out to end the game.

“Tyler Marra, he hasn’t gotten a lot of the innings on the mound yet, and we’re going to change that and try to get him some more experience,” Lehasky said. “Again, he was in a tough spot, coming in to close it because Cole Goldizen pitched out, and he did a great job.”

Josh Thomaschek got the start on the mound for the Hawks and struck out six hitters through four innings, four of which were caught looking. Thomaschek pitched 4 2/3 innings and allowed three runs (one earned) on three hits with four walks and seven strikeouts.

“When Josh is on the mound, Josh can beat probably anyone on our schedule,” coach Tate said. “This was the first time — he got in the other night for an inning — but this is the first time pitching on the mound since he tore his ACL in October of the football season.

“He’s worked his tail off to get to the point where he can throw on the mound. He’s a pitcher only right now. We’ll see what happens in the next month or so to see if he can do much else. But if we can only get outings like that out of him, I’ll be tickled to death.”

Heslep was 2 for 3 with three RBI and Marra was 2 for 4 with two RBI.

South Harrison didn’t wait to take an early lead, as Evans led off with a single, stole second and scored on Hefner’s single to deep right center field. Hefner advanced to third base on a groundout and later scored on Brevan Robinson’s single that hugged the third-base line.

An RBI single to center field by Dane Tate increased the Hawks’ lead to 3-0. They increased their lead in the top of the second inning as Ty Finster led off with a double and scored on Evans’ single to deep left field.

The next batter, Hefner, reached first on a fielder’s choice grounder between first and second base. He eventually stole second and scored on Gain’s single to shallow left center field, giving the Hawks a 5-0 lead.

Gain was 3 for 5 with two RBI, both of which came on his two-run single in the bottom of the fourth, which gave the Hawks a 7-1 lead. Evans was 2 for 3.