Notre Dame advances in MCT
HAMILTON » Bill Trimble looked like an ace, and Notre Dame High’s baseball team is starting to look like a dark horse contender.
Trimble threw a four-hitter with one walk and four strikeouts in pitching the ninthseeded Irish to a 3-1 win over eighth-seeded Hamilton West in a first-round Mercer County Tournament Monday.
While ND (9-5-1) must now take on top-seeded and oncebeaten Hopewell Valley in the quarterfinals, it is 6-0-1 in the last seven games and the players are feeling confident.
“I think we can go all the way if we put our minds to it,” said Trimble, who got all he needed on Jake Kmiec’s tworun triple in the first. “We’re starting to play great, our offense is starting to come around, our defense was great today. Without the defense it could have been a different outcome.”
Perhaps, but because of Trimble’s mastery, Notre Dame’s fielders got numerous easy chances on soft grounders or easy balls in the air. Ryan Beczo was nearly as good, as he allowed two runs, five hits and one walk while striking out six in 6.2 innings.
“Ryan pitched unbelievable,” Hornets coach Mike Moceri said. “He pitched good enough to win. Trimble pitched a great game. He kept us off balance all game and we didn’t make too many adjustments at the plate. He shut us down.”
And he avenged a 6-5 walkoff loss ND suffered at Hamilton Apr. 20.
“Hamilton’s a scrappy bunch,” Irish coach Joe Drulis said. “They beat Nottingham, they were one out away from beating Hopewell, they’re a good team. Hats off to Bill Trimble with a great effort. My adage is it’s pitching/ catching, defense, timely hitting and we succeeded in all three.”
Trimble is now 4-0 with 22 strikeouts in 26 innings pitched. He has allowed just 12 hits, two walks and two runs, as his ERA actually went up from 0.37 to 0.54.
Thus, ND felt good by staking him to a first-inning lead. Ryan Mains and Robbie Buecker singled. After a fielder’s choice, Buecker and Tatem Levins worked a double steal but Trimble struck out. Kmiec, who would have gone to Hamilton had he gone to public school, pulled the second pitch he saw in the rightcenterfield gap to score both runners.
“The first pitch I fouled off a curveball,” said Kmiec, who became eligible on May 1. “I really just wanted to score two runs and put the ball in play, and it so happened to get in the gap and I just kept going.”
“He didn’t try to do too much,” Drulis said. “He squared it up and hits a triple. We’re really happy he’s back, he’s having a great year in this mini seven-day period he’s been with us.”
It stayed 2-0 into the bottom of the sixth, when Danilo Perdomo delivered a pinch-triple and Tyler Springett drove him in to pull Hamilton within one. But two Hornet errors in the top of the seventh gave ND an unearned run.
West put runners on first and second with two outs in the seventh before Trimble got a strikeout to end it. The hurler said he felt fine at the late innings, despite allowing a few more baserunners.
“I was over thinking a little bit, just leaving pitches up a little,” he said. “All game I was leaving them up but they were swinging at them so they were helping me out. Other than that I felt pretty good throughout the whole game.
“We kept with fastballs, my targets were in and out, staying low. Through the third or fourth inning my off-speed started working. Earlier in the game it wasn’t the best, but it came around in the later in- nings and I started throwing strikes.” Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores
NotreDame(9-5-1) 200 000 1 — 1 5 1
Hamilton (11-8) 000001 0—342 2B: Fitzpatrick (H); 3B: Kmiec (ND), Perdomo (H); RBIs: Kmiec 2 (ND), Springett (H). WP— Trimble (4-0); LP— Beszo.