OTTUMWA — Adorned mostly in gold, it was the Notre Dame Nikes that punched their proverbial ‘Golden Ticket’ to another Class 1A state baseball berth at Merchants Park in Carroll next week with a solid 7-3 win over third-ranked Lynnville-Sully, Tuesday night at Legion Memorial Park at the Ottumwa Sports Complex.

Notre Dame improved to 22-7 on the season after the 1A Substate 6 victory, while the Hawks saw their season conclude at 25-4. Their appearance at state will be their first since 2024 in Carroll. Not bad for a team that began their year 1-4 before rattling off 21 victories out of 24 appearances. The Nikes were upended on June 20th by Central DeWitt, but are perhaps the hottest team in the state in Class 1A.

So, what’s the difference?

“It’s our mindset,” freshman Hank Humphrey said. “We just want it more now.”

Notre Dame coach Chris Chiprez said that the rocky start was basically the result of defensive lapses that are no longer being made. With the pressure of the season at its apex, the Nikes had no errors on Tuesday night.

“These kids eat, sleep and drink baseball,” Chiprez said. “They don’t like losing. After the 1-4 start, we all kind of woke up. The start didn’t sit well with them or the coaches, but now we are playing with maturity.”

Notre Dame will be the No. 7 seed and play No. 2 seed South Winneshiek at 1:30 p.m. on July 20th.

Whether it be a freshman or a seasoned senior, the Nikes have used a combination of small ball and aggressive base running to go back to their traditional winning ways.

It was the use of the sacrifice and the bunt, which helped them dispatch Lynnville-Sully.

As the visiting team, Notre Dame came out of the chute early and established early momentum with a three-run first inning. The hot start did a few things for the Nikes, aside from giving them a lead they would never surrender.

The inauspicious start forced Lynnville-Sully coach Scott Alberts to relieve starting pitcher Connor Deal after just a third of an inning of work. Deal was the Hawks’ leading pitcher with eight wins and an earned run average of just 1.25.

Notre Dame starting pitcher Tatum Warner helped his own cause with a single to open the game. Warner then stole second and later moved on to third on Kyler Cameron’s single.

Cameron had two hits on the day.

Eli Oleson, who leads the Nikes with a .568 batting average, plated Warner and Cameron with a two-rundouble. Oleson then scored on Maddox Diewold’s double. After surrendering a walk, Deal was replaced.

The damage had been done, however, as Notre Dame would never trail throughout the contest.

“It’s huge to get the first run of the game,” Oleson said. “I always like it when we are the visitors. It feels like we can jump on them early and then we’ll have a good game.”

Lynnville-Sully scored two in the bottom of the second and answered Notre Dame’s score in the fourth, before the Nikes put the game out of reach.

Holding on to a precarious one-run advantage at 4-3, Notre Dame’s defense was asked to close the door on any Lynnville-Sully comeback bid.

Which they did.

Lynnville-Sully’s Dylan Rea perhaps thought he was going to tie the score with a sinking blooper to right. With two outs, teammate Jack Bowlin was on the run, and if the ball fell for a single, it could have plated the tying run. If the ball got past the out-stretched glove of Humphrey, the game would have likely been tied.

But, the freshman played the ball with poise and came up with the snag to preserve the one-run lead heading into the final frame.

“I was never going to let it drop,” Humphrey said. “I just had to run in.”

Notre Dame utilized the art of bunting in the seventh, highlighted by Curtis Randall’s flawlessly-executed suicide-squeeze bunt that plated a run.

“Curtis has been struggling at the plate, but that was a perfect bunt,” Chiprez said.

Now with a four-run lead, Notre Dame looked to the right arm of senior Payne Prottsman to help them continue their state title run. Prottsman surrendered a walk to the dangerous Jaiden Richards, who had 32 stolen bases coming into Tuesday’s contest.

But, Prottsman dug deep and struck out Brody Borg with some high heat and the celebration ensued.

“I have full confidence when Payne is on the mound,” Oleson said. “I know he can get three outs against anybody. He did a great job.”

“I was trying to keep everyone calm,” Prottsman said. “We just needed to stay calm and show people what we can do.”