Prep baseball: Notre Dame knocks off No. 8 Sigourney, advances to substate final | The Hawk Eye – Burlington, Iowa

SIGOURNEY — The Notre Dame High School baseball team faced a daunting task.

The Nikes were facing Sigourney junior Chase Clarahan, who had allowed just eight runs and lost only one game all season heading into Saturday’s Class 1A district championship game at Sigourney High School.

Make that two losses.

Notre Dame took advantage of four Sigourney errors to score four runs in the first inning on its way to a 5-2 victory.

Notre Dame (21-7) advances to a substate final to play seventh-ranked Lynnville-Sully (25-3) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Legion Memorial Field at the Ottumwa Sports Complex.

Eighth-ranked Sigourney bows out with a 21-4 record.

While all eyes were on Clarahan, it was the Notre Dame duo of Tatum Warner and Payne Prottsman who shone brightest on the mound.

“Two years ago they beat us. That one hurt. We wanted to come back and beat them this year,” said Warner, who allowed two runs and six hits in 3 2/3 innings. “We always preach getting ahead in the count. I think doing that, starting with a strike, makes it easier for me.”

“It feels great. There’s nothing better than going out there and having one of your best outings. Just going out there, throwing strikes and knowing your team’s got your back behind you,” said Prottsman, who allowed no hits, walked two and struck out five over the the final 3 1/3 innings. “I knew I had to play a role and my bat wasn’t the best, so I came in and threw strikes. I didn’t give up any runs. I knew my team would make the plays behind me. I was just ready to go in and shut the door and be ready for Tuesday.”

The Nikes jumped on Clarahan and the Savages from the outset.

Warner led off with a single to right field, took second on an infield single by Landry Haberichter and advanced to third on a bunt single by Kyler Cameron to load the bases.

“I saw the ball,” Warner said. “He’s a fast pitcher, great pitcher. I just waited back and drove it to right field. We’ve been preaching driving it to right field on them.”

The floodgates opened from there. Eli Oleson reached on an error, which allowed Warner to score.

After a Sigourney double play, an error scored Cameron and Oleson scored on a passed ball. Another Sigourney error produced another Notre Dame run.

Just like that, the Nikes had a 4-0 advantage.

“That’s what we’ve been talking about for the last three days was jumping on them early and keep putting the pressure on them,” Notre Dame coach Chris Chiprez said. “That’s one thing that we’ve done well all year long is we capitalize on other teams’ mistakes. They kicked the ball around a little bit and we made them pay for it. Putting up four runs in the first inning was a good start for us.”

The early cushion allowed Warner to relax and get ahead in the count.

“Scoring four runs was huge. It calmed me down. I just knew I could throw strikes,” Warner said. “That was a huge confidence booster. We knew we could win this game. We’ve been working all year for this game. That just helped us with our confidence getting those four runs.”

Sigourney sliced the Nikes’ lead in half in the fourth inning. Ike Molyneuax led off with a single and Graham Moore followed with a towering home run over the fence in right-center field.

Two outs later, Carson Davis singled, prompting Chiprez to bring in Prottsman.

“Tatum has been our guy all year long. He came in and pounded the zone. We knew they were probably going to start zeroing in on him about the third or fourth inning,” Chiprez said. “Payne is a senior. He doesn’t want his season to end.”

Prottsman got Lincoln Power to line out to second baseman Maddox Diewold to end the inning.

That wasn’t the only time Prottsman and Warner would team up on the night.

Molyneaux drew a walk to lead off the sixth. Prottsman got Moore to hit a bouncer up the middle. Warner grabbed the ball, stepped on second base and fired to first baseman Curtis Randall to complete the double play.

“Payne threw a good pitch. He hit it right up the middle. I was right on second base to end it,” Warner said. “That definitely changed the momentum. There were no outs at that point. We went from no outs and one on to two outs and cleared the bases. That was huge.”

“We don’t turn a lot of double plays,” Chiprez said. “It’s kind of funny because Coach Chip (assistant coach Drew Chiprez) and I were just talking about that right before it happened that we needed a double play. Tatum is the leader of our infield. He’s got a great glove and he commands the infield so well. Fate had it that we got him off the mound and put him at shortstop.”

The Nikes plated an insurance run in the sixth. Randall walked and was sacrificed to second by Prottsman. He then raced to third on a ground out by Hank Humphrey and scored on a single by Garrison Reid.

That was all the run support Prottsman would need. He surrendered a lead-off walk to start the seventh before getting Davis to ground out and striking out Power and Clarahan to end the game.

“I feel like we were the underdogs. I don’t think people thought we were going to come out here and play like we did. We showed them how the Nikes play baseball,” Prottsman said. “We knew we were going to come out here just like any other day and put the bat on the ball and score.”

“We are pretty fortunate that both of these guys can go on Tuesday because we were under the pitch limit. They both did an outstanding job,” Chris Chiprez said. “It’s just another game. Just because it’s a substate final doesn’t mean the game changes. You still have to go out there and hit the ball. You still have to make plays and you still have to throw strikes. I think if we come in relaxed and we play like we can play, we’ll be okay.”