Carmel 17, Notre Dame 1

After pulling out a 4-3 win in the bottom of the seventh Tuesday, visiting Carmel's baseball team was expecting another tough battle in a rematch at Notre Dame Wednesday.

But after taking a 4-1 lead after two innings, the Corsairs exploded for 8 runs in the top of the third en route to an impressive 17-1 East Suburban Catholic Conference victory over the Dons in five innings.

Carmel (16-2, 7-2) took a quick 2-0 lead when winning pitcher Bobby Lyne drove in teammate John Zeffery with a two-out single down the left-field line.

Then Joe Pudlo drew a bases loaded walk off of losing pitcher Joe Ufheil to go ahead 2-0.

The Corsairs' offense struck again in the top of the second with an RBI double by Jordan Sivertsen and an RBI single by Don Stopka making the score 4-0.

Notre Dame (10-12) did reach Lyne for a run on Mike Kane's fielder's choice RBI in the bottom of the second, but that would be the Dons' only run of the contest as they were held to 3 hits overall.

"We hit on all cylinders defensively and offensively and it made my job real easy with the big lead we were able to get fairly early in the game," Lyne said. "I just wanted to hit my spots with all of my pitches and make them put the ball in play."

A one-out walk by Pudlo started Carmel's 8-run third inning before a single by Scott Bierman put runners on the corners.

Kevin Hendricks' RBI double to right-center made the score 5-1 before a 2-run double to left-center by Brian Siedlecki off of Notre Dame reliever Alec Fries boosted the lead to 7-1.

Stopka added a 2-run double to right-center with two outs before 2 errors helped the Corsairs send 12 batters to the plate overall in the third inning.

"We put the ball in play and I think that was the key with the wind blowing in today," said Carmel assistant coach Greg Krebs. "We got a lot of good looks at the plate, we hit strikes, and the kids were anxious to hit."

Siedlecki, Zeffery, and Sivertsen all scored 3 runs for the Corsairs while Stopka went 2-for-4 with 3 RBI.