By Josh Staloch
Correspondent
ASHWAUBENON – The Notre Dame Academy baseball had a shaky start on defense May 20 against Ashwaubenon at Ashwaubomay Park but was able to bounce back and record a 5-2 Fox River Classic Conference (FRCC) win.
The win for the Tritons improved them to 10-4 overall on the year and 5-4 in the FRCC.
“We pride ourselves on our defense, but in the first inning tonight, we had two errors,” Notre Dame head coach Jared Barker said. “Our pitcher (Caden Capomaccio) was able to battle out of it, and the team picked us up from there. We had two innings we ended nicely on double plays, and that’s what carried us – our pitching and our defense.”
The Tritons’ offense got going early, though.
In the first inning, Cade Milton reached first with two outs with an infield single before Brady LaViolette ripped a double to score him from second for a 1-0 lead.
In Ashwaubenon’s half of the inning, Eason Hurd led off with a strongly-hit, but playable, shot to the outfield that fell in.
Capomaccio struck out the next batter, but Boone Kirst got on base next thanks to another error charged to the Tritons’ defense.
However, there was a highlight for Notre Dame on the play when LaViolette gunned down Hurd, who decided to head for home.
The throw from first was spot on, and catcher Cade Milton did a good job to bring it in and put the tag on the runner to record the out.
The Tritons’ offense got back to work in the third when they put runners into scoring position with two outs on a double by Griffin Klein that put LaViolette on third.
Evan Duncan came up next with what proved to be the game-winning swing, as he connected to bring in both Klein and LaViolette.
Notre Dame led 4-0 after the inning.
The Jaguars didn’t go away quietly, though.
In the bottom of the fifth, Ashwaubenon got a lead-off walk from Cam Jackson.
Pitcher Eil Zollar did himself a favor on the mound by blasting a shot over the fence for Ashwaubenon’s only offense of the game.
The Tritons got out of trouble later in the inning when Isaac Johnson made a nice play to catch a liner before rifling a throw back to first to get the returning baserunner to complete the double play.
“The defense had some big plays, but we’ve also been talking about not being satisfied when we’re up a run or two,” Barker said. “So, going out and getting those insurance runs before their guy hit his two-run homer, those were big, timely RBIs. It was a nice win for us.”