NEW LONDON — Notre Dame High School baseball coach Chris Chiprez couldn’t have asked for a better start to the postseason.

The Nikes played a nearly flawless game in an 11-1, five-inning win over Keota in a Class 1A district quarterfinal game on Saturday at the New London Ball Fields.

Notre Dame got one inning from ace pitcher Payne Prottsman, 2 1/3 innings from Curtis Randall and a strong closing performance from eighth grader Isaac Lehman.

The Nikes pounded out eight hits and played error-free baseball in the field to make quick work of the Eagles.

Notre Dame (16-9) advances to a district semifinal to face New London (14-9) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the New London Ball Fields.

Keota ends the season with a 7-11 record.

It was just the kind of postseason opener Chiprez was hoping for from his young team.

“All in all I’m happy with what happened tonight,” Chiprez said. “It was great. I didn’t know how we were going to come out. I didn’t know if we were going to come out flat or come out on fire. I thought we came out and did a great job. All facets of the game were working for us tonight.”

Prottsman, in his first work in a week, wriggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the first inning. Brennan McGuire was hit by a pitch and Ayden Galindo singled to right-center field. Two outs later, Brycen Horras worked a walk to fill the bags.

Prottsman then struck out Jackson Vittetoe to end the threat.

“Payne hasn’t pitched since the Burlington game, so we wanted to get him out there and get him at least 25 pitches to get him loose,” Chiprez said.

With a light rain falling, the Nikes got all the runs they would need in the bottom of the inning. Landry Haberichter led off with a single and Maddox Diewold was hit by a pitch. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch before a sacrifice fly by Jeremiah Crow gave Notre Dame the lead.

Eli Oleson reached on an error which allowed Diewold to score. Kyler Cameron drove in Oleson with a single, Prottsman drew a walk and Garrison Reid singled. Randall then drew a walk before Tatum Warner singled in two runs.

Just like that the Nikes had a 5-0 lead.

“I’ve been struggling a little bit. These last three days of practices I have been working on my swing with Coach Chip and the other coaches. It felt really good to see that work pay off,” Reid said. “I was in my two-strike approach. Coaches stress that during the winter. I work on that a lot in practices. Coach Drew (Chiprez) always talks about two-strike approach there.”

Notre Dame added three runs in each of the second and third innings. Cameron, Prottsman and Randall each drove in runs in the second inning, while Diewold and Prottsman each had an RBI in the third.

“We had a lot of timely hitting — two-strike hitting, two-out hitting,” Chiprez said. “If you can do that, you’re going to bury a lot of teams.”

Two singles and a double led to Keota’s lone run in the fourth inning.

Randall allowed two hits and struck out four in his return to the mound.

“We were going to throw Payne 25 pitches and then get him out of there so he can be ready for Tuesday,” Chiprez said. “We just got Curtis back from the DL, if you can call it that, with a hip flexor injury. It’s nice to see him back in midseason form again.”

Lehman came in to slam the door shut, getting two running catches in left field from Oleson.

“He’s one of my best outfielders that I can trust to make the plays,” Lehman said of Oleson. “I tried to have as much confidence as I could and just go out there and throw.”

“For an eighth grader, he’s been good for us all year long,” Chiprez said of Lehman. “He did a good job of coming in and closing the game out.”

Notre Dame now prepares for the rubber match against SEI Super Conference South Division rival New London. The teams split a pair of games in the regular season, each winning on the other’s home field.

“Move on to New London now,” Reid said. “It’s going to be really tough.”

“I thought all three facets of our game were working great,” Chiprez said. “It was a good start to the postseason.”