April 28, 2015
Sikeston becomes latest victim during Notre Dame's 15-game winning streak
Graham Ruopp pitched a solid six innings giving up three hits and the Notre Dame offense erupted for five runs in the sixth to push aside SEMO Conference rival Sikeston 9-1
By Chris Pobst - Standard Democrat
sports@standard-democrat.com
SIKESTON -- Even during the midsts of one of the more lucrative winning streaks around, Notre Dame head baseball coach Jeff Graviett thought his team played one of its most complete games yet.
Starter Graham Ruopp pitched a solid six innings giving up three hits and the Notre Dame offense erupted for five runs in the sixth to push aside SEMO Conference rival Sikeston 9-1 Tuesday at VFW Memorial Stadium in Sikeston.
"This was one of our better, all-around games we've played, especially in the last couple of weeks," Graviett said. "We put it all together."
Sikeston became yet another team in the path of Notre Dame, who extended its win-streak to 15 games and sits as the No. 1 team in Class 4 according to the latest Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association state poll.
"Notre Dame's a good team," Sikeston head coach Alan Scheeter said. "They just reload every year and whenever they lose a group of seniors they just bring another one in. They've been doing that for years."
One of the main reasons for Notre Dame's recent stretch is its utter dominance on the mound. As a pitching staff, Notre Dame (17-3) came into Tuesday's game with an ERA of 0.98. Ruopp, who is committed to play baseball for the University of Missouri, lowered that number during his stint after an unearned run scored in the second for Sikeston.
The sidearmed right-hander struck out eight, walked one and got out of his biggest jam of the day in the fourth inning.
Sikeston put runner's on second and third with one out and a chance to cut into Notre Dame's 4-1 lead at the time. Ruopp caught Sikeston's Trey Smith looking and coaxed a groundball to second to end the threat.
"Pitching has been there all year long and Graham was phenomenal," said Graviett. "His velocity was back up. His last outing he was a little bit down. He had his movement and was back in command today. He was dictating the pace of the game and doing all the little things he's good at."
Sikeston (9-8) put one runner on in the last three innings after its best chance to score slipped past. Sikeston struck out nine times as a team continuing what has hampered them throughout the season.
"We've been bit by the strikeout bug all year long," said Scheeter. "We don't turn the intensity level up when we get runner's in scoring position and we take too many called third strikes. Just flick the bat out there, put it in play and who knows what could happen."
Notre Dame scored its first run in the first inning after a sacrifice fly from Dean Crippen. They added three more in the second which included an RBI double from Hunter Eftink, a run-scoring groundout from Ross Essner and an RBI single from Logan Heisserer, who finished 3 for 4 with three RBIs.
"I thought we hit the ball a lot better than what we showed," said Graviett. "We've struggled with the bats and our hit total wasn't great today but (Sikeston) made some good plays on some hard hit balls. We had productive at-bats and took advantage of walks when they gave them to us."
Sikeston's run scored after a groundball bounced off Crippen at first and into short-centerfield allowing Wyatt Pratt to reach first safely. Colton Hampton, who reached base earlier in the inning after hitting the first of his two doubles, scored from second on the play to cut into Notre Dame's 4-1 lead.
Sikeston starter Chase Gaines settled into a rhythm after the first two innings keeping Notre Dame off the board for three-straight innings. But things got hairy shorty after.
Gaines lasted 5 1/3 innings and left with the bases loaded in the sixth. He gave up all nine runs on five hits and six walks.
"We had enough today to just hang with them for a little bit," said Scheeter. "Chase kind of ran out of gas there in the sixth inning, but he threw a good game until then. That's what we look for him to do each time out. They just had a couple more guns than what he had."
Notre Dame, who's batting .344 as a team, put the game away with five runs in the sixth which included a 2-run double by Heisserer. Notre Dame, who struck out just once the entire game, had two hits in the inning and took advantage of three walks.
"You've got to put it in play at the high school level. That's the difference in a good team and an average team," Graviett said. "We found ways to get guys home."
Notre Dame will be off until Friday when they host Kennett during the first round of the SEMO Conference tournament at 3 p.m. The tournament's top seed lost to this year's No. 8 seed Kennett in the championship game last season.
"That's what we play for and it's one of our goals to win that tournament. We take a lot of pride in that," Graviett said about the upcoming tournament. "It's a tough tournament to win with three games in four days on a pitching staff. This is one of those years we've got the pitching staff able to accomplish that."
Sikeston, the tournament's fourth seed, will resume its suspended game against Charleston on Thursday before hosting No. 5 Cape Central at 4 p.m. on Friday. If the seeds hold true, Sikeston will face Notre Dame again on Saturday in the semifinal round at 2 p.m. at Notre Dame High School.
"We beat Cape once already and that should give us a little bit of confidence going in to it," Scheeter said. "Cape's got a good ball club and we're going to have our hands full with whoever (Notre Dame) throws against us on Saturday."
The Sikeston junior varsity lost to Notre Dame 7-3.
Will Gilmer pitched six innings and gave up four runs in the losing effort.
Josh Stinnett and Peyton Kennard each had two hits. Mackenzie Worth, Brandon Hurt and Ben Ray each had one.
Notre Dame 130 005 0 -- 9 6 1
Sikeston 010 000 0 -- 1 3 1
WP -- Graham Ruopp. LP -- Chase Gaines. Multiple hitters: (N) Logan Heisserer 3-4; (S) Colton Hampton 2-3. 2B: (N) Heisserer, Hunter Eftink; (S) Hampton 2.
Advertisement
Advertisement