ND baseball tops Towanda in tourney.
By: The Review | Towanda Daily Review | April 26, 2015 | Photo courtesy The Review
2015 NTL and District 4 News
SOUTHPORT - The Notre Dame baseball team went 1-1 at the Elmira Tournament on Saturday, while Towanda was 0-2 on the day.
Notre Dame opened with a 14-4 win over Towanda, before falling to Edison 23-7 in the final.
Towanda fell to Lansing 11-3 in the consolation game.
In the opening game Notre Dame jumped out to a 4-0 lead over Towanda in the first inning and led 5-0 after scoring in the top of the third, but Towanda answered with four runs in the bottom of the third to make it a one-run game.
The Crusaders blew the game open with a nine-run sixth inning.
Parker May had a 3-for-3 day for Notre Dame, with a double, an RBI and three runs scored.
Kyle Minchin had a hit and a run scored and Matt Smith had a hit and scored a run.
Cam Reid had a hit and scored two runs and Matt LaBadie had a hit, an RBI and a run scored.
Nate Snavely had an RBI and a run scored and Chris Karam had a double, a run scored and two RBI, while Louie Clearwater had a double, two RBI and a run scored.
Ben Cook had a hit and an RBI and Dan Sterns had a hit and a run scored, while Iman McKay scored a run.
Nick Place keyed Towanda's four-run third with a three-run home run.
Ethan Barto had two hits and scored a run for Towanda and Tyler Bidlack had a hit and scored a run.
Brandon McLinko and Lars Thomason each had hits for Towanda in the game, while Charlie Watkins had a hit and scored a run.
Place started on the mound for Towanda, striking out two in five innings, and the Black Knights then threw three pitchers the next two innings, combining for two strikeouts.
Collin Mustico started for Notre Dame, working two innings and Cook, Clearwater and LaBadie combined for five innings of one-hit, one walk, four strikeout baseball.
In the final Edison scored seven runs in the fourth and 12 in the fifth to pull away after trailing 4-3 after three.
Down 3-0 the Crusaders got four runs in the third and had the bases loaded with no outs before Edison got out of the jam with three straight strikeouts.
Minchin had a hit and scored a run for Notre Dame and Snavely had an RBI.
May had a double, an RBI and two runs scored and Reid had a double, two RBI and a run scored.
LaBadie had a hit and an RBI and Nick Clark had a hit and an RBI, while Clearwater and Sterns each scored runs in the game.
Cook started on the mound as Notre Dame used five pitchers, who combined for two strikeouts in the game.
Another tough sixth inning cost Towanda in the consolation game.
Towanda led 3-2 after four and trailed just 4-3 after five, before Lansing scored seven in the sixth to get the win.
"We were in a one-run ball game after five innings, down a run, in a position to be in the game and we let it all go away in the sixth inning," Towanda coach Bill Sexton said. "We have got to find a way to play competitive baseball for seven innings, right now we are not doing that. We haven't been able to put the whole thing together. We are more than 1/3 of the way through the season and we need to find some consistency in what we are doing."
Place had a double and Barto, Watkins and Keegan Kisner all had hits and scored runs for Towanda.
Bidlack had a hit and an RBI and Thomason had an RBI.
Thomason worked five innings, striking out five, walking two and allowing two hits and four runs, just one earned. Barto and Kisner each pitched an inning, striking out one each.
Sexton was happy with the way his starting pitchers threw in the two games.
"I thought against Notre Dame we got off to a rough start," he said. "Place was having trouble locating, they got a big inning to get things started, then he settled down to give us four more innings and he helped himself with a three-run home run and we had it at 5-4 once it became time to take him out and once we did we couldn't do anything from the mound to keep control of them.
"I thought we got a real good start by Thomason. He was a victim of errors and shoddy play behind him. He only gave up two hits and three of the runs were unearned. We are finding new ways to give up runs."
Towanda hosts Canton on Monday while Notre Dame is at Waverly.
