Notre Dame stands and delivers against Maine West

Some of Notre Dame's best and brightest minds were wandering during Saturday morning's graduation ceremony in Niles.

First baseman Matt Moser's valedictorian speech included a mention of the early-afternoon Class 4A baseball regional championship game the Dons were hosting against Maine West. It was also brought up by salutatorian and leading hitter Sam Bungum.

"Once I heard that I thought it would be tough to beat us today," said Notre Dame coach Bob Kostuch.

The fourth-seeded Dons (26-10) capped off a big day by backing senior left-hander Phil Kerber with errorless defense and 10 hits in a 7-2 victory over the No. 7 Warriors (23-10).

Getting a diploma was nice for Kerber, who has a 33 ACT and is going to pitch at Illinois Wesleyan. But winning a complete-game 7-hitter with 4 strikeouts and 1 walk to improve to 9-2 was even better as the Dons advanced to Wednesday's 4:15 p.m. Niles West sectional semifinal against top-seed Maine South (24-10), which beat Niles West 5-1 for the Leyden regional title.

"The game was more important than graduation in my eyes," said Kerber, who mixed split-finger, cut and two-seam fastballs to throw 56 of his 82 pitches for strikes. "When the guys walked into the clubhouse everybody was ready to play and everybody was hyped up."

Maine West coach Joe Pederson would have liked to have seen a better mind game as it not only committed 5 errors but also lost two runners on the bases and had 10 outs in the air against Kerber.

"We didn't execute and you have to tip your cap to Notre Dame," Pederson said. "They put balls in play and played the game hard - how the game should be played.

"We took the fastball and just jumped at the off-speed pitch. Our plan wasn't what it should be and it wasn't what got us here."

Maine West did execute to score in the top of the first as Connor Skoczynski (2-for-4) doubled and came around on a grounder to first by Ryan Ross and a single by Tommy Ross (2-for-3).

But the Warriors left runners at first and second with one out in the fourth and ran themselves out of a chance to cut into a 5-1 deficit in the sixth.

The North Central-bound Tommy Ross hit a leadoff double and Paul Solka hit a blooper down the right-field line. Solka was out between second and third when he didn't see Pederson hold Ross at third and the Warriors didn't score.

Notre Dame broke a 1-1 tie in the second as Dan Fries doubled and came around on a wild pitch and Bungum's groundout. Fries and Jack Wietlispach had RBI singles in a 3-run fourth off junior Josh Wright.

"We've put up big runs all year," Kerber said. "I knew if I kept them to 1 or 2 runs we'd definitely get some runs."