Irish go to 4-0 in district

There’s Marion County and then there’s the rest, and Notre Dame is trying to leave the rest and join the best in District 6-AA baseball.

The Fighting Irish made another move Tuesday afternoon toward running down preseason favorite Marion County at Chattanooga State. They scored 11 third-inning runs on their way to a five-inning, 14-0 victory over Chattanooga Christian.

The win boosted Notre Dame to 6-1, 4-0 in 6-AA.

“Early in the year you try to get young guys in, but I’m not going to play them if they’re not proving to me that they’re ready,” Irish coach Brian Hitchcox said.

He began pulling the starters and letting youngsters get some swings in the bottom of the fourth, but they failed to produce after the starters forged the big lead.

Catcher Sam Eberle reached base in all four of his plate appearances with a double, two singles and a walk. Eberle, coming off a two-homer game Monday against CCS, is being actively recruited by Samford, Birmingham-Southern, Jacksonville State, Walters State and Middle Tennessee State.

“There are a lot of schools interested in him, but those are the ones that are coming to watch him,” Hitchcox said.

Ben Howard and Cory Richardson got two hits each in the third inning. Howard was 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI. Richardson had a bunt single down the third-base line and doubled to center and also scored a run.

“They hit the ball well, but then I would have expected it because they have several starters returning,” said CCS coach John Visser, who continues to tinker with his lineup in hopes of finding a winning combination.

The Chargers (0-6, 0-2) are quite young and appeared to be overwhelmed at times by Notre Dame pitcher Wyatt Ervin, who threw a four-hitter while striking out five and walking none.

While he might have been disappointed, Visser wasn’t discouraged.

“We have to keep working fundamentals. I’m hoping if we do that, then things will fall into place,” he said. “The season’s still early.”

Getting off to a good start has been good for the Irish, Hitchcox said, although he is far from satisfied.

“We have to be consistent,” he said. “We can’t take pitches off. We can’t be complacent. We can’t take innings off.”

He was alluding to his team leaving the bases loaded in the first and taking a 1-0 lead in the second only when Patrick Doyle singled, stole a base and scored on two throwing errors.

Notre Dame finally got busy in the third, coupling 10 hits with a couple of walks and another Chargers error.

“Our plate discipline was pretty good,” Hitchcox said. “Their guy (Jacob Hutcherson) was throwing a pretty good splitter, and we finally began laying off and forcing him to throw strikes. We did a good job of nickel-and-diming them. We got a couple of bunts down, and that’s us. Up and down the lineup, everybody is pretty much the same. They can do the little things.”