MORGANTOWN — The Clay Battelle baseball team hosted Notre Dame at Monongalia Country Ballpark in the final game of the MVB Mon County Classic on Saturday afternoon. The visiting Irish (6-12) took home a 9-2 victory behind six errors by the Cee-Bees.
C-B senior pitcher Kohlton St. Clair earned eight strikeouts in four innings pitched but his start was plagued by mistakes that led to six unearned runs.
C-B scored just two runs on seven hits, with seven different batters tallying a knock in the game. C-B head coach John Coombs knows his team is a better baseball team than the one that took the field on Saturday.
“They had a six-run inning and I’m not sure any of them was an earned run,” Coombs said after the game. “Kohlton did what he needed, we just didn’t come out to play ball. I don’t know what it was specifically I’m just disappointed in the result. We are a better ball club than that.”
The visitors struck early in the game on an error by the C-B infield that allowed a runner from third to cross the plate.
St. Clair did well to respond in the next inning, retiring the side in just 11 pitches. That allowed his offense to get behind him as a base hit by Cameron Mercer brought Kooper Statler around to tie the game.
That moment, however, would be one of the last positives on the afternoon for the Cee-Bees.
ND took another lead on a double up the middle that scored the runner from second base. Then, on the very next pitch, another C-B error by the infield surrendered two more runs to the Irish, giving the visitors a 4-1 lead in the top of the third.
Two more base hits secured as many runs over the remainder of the half-inning for ND, making the lead 7-1 going into the fourth.
“It was the snowball effect tonight,” Coombs said. “One thing went wrong, then the next thing, and the next thing. We have to just try to rebound Monday and go out and win a game.”
The Cee-Bees got their second run of the game in the bottom of the third on a two-out single by sophomore catcher Austin Foley that scored St. Clair from third, but that would be the final run to cross home plate.
Notre Dame starter Preston Heslep tossed six innings, allowing seven hits and two runs. He also struck out six batters. ND shortstop Dom Bombarderie went 2 for 3 at the plate with a double and a triple.
Foley and Mercer earned the RBI for C-B while St. Clair and Statler scored the two runs.
C-B will travel to Hundred on Monday for its next game.
Notre Dame 9, Clay Battelle 2
ND 106 002 0 – 9 8 1
C-B 011 000 0 – 2 7 6
Notre Dame – Bombarderie 3220, Marra 3211, Heslep 3113, Goldizen 4000, Sandreth 4000, Peters 3110, Freeman 1000, Kennedy 3011, Urso 2210
2B: Bombardiere, Urso, Marra
3B: Bombardiere
Clay Battelle – St. Clair 3110, Spears 3010, Mercer 3010, Foley 3011, Statler 3110, Gadd 2010, Strosnider 2000, Turner 1000, Mercer 2011, Henthorn 1000, Thomas 2000, Summers 1000
WP: Heslep 6.0ip 7h 2r 0bb 6k; Goldizen 1.0 0h 0r 0bb 0k
LP: St. Clair 4.0ip 6h 7r 2bb 8k; Statler 3.0ip 2h 2r 1bb 2k
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