Trotta's homer lifts Dons past JCA

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Notre Dame pitcher and cleanup hitter Mike Trotta knows the joy Mark DeRosa felt.

On Sunday, the Cubs' second baseman lofted a key home run over the left-field foul pole, and the Cubs went on to beat Philadelphia 6-5 in 10 innings. On Monday, Trotta lofted a two-run homer over the left-field foul pole, and Notre Dame went on to beat Joliet Catholic 5-3 in the teams' East Suburban Catholic Conference opener at Gillespie Field.

In each instance, there is strong suspicion the homer actually was a foul ball.

But, hey, it's a tough call.

"What can I say?" JCA coach Jared Voss said. "[The plate umpire] is on the line and has the best view of it."

The two-run homer gave the Dons (5-5 overall) a 3-0 lead in the third inning. JCA (7-3 overall) scored three times and left seven runners on base over its last four at-bats, but never could get even.

"There's definitely going to be some battles in this conference, just like always," Voss said.

The Hilltoppers had two on with one out in the bottom of the fourth but couldn't score. They broke through against Trotta with two runs in the fifth on RBI singles by John Ruettiger and Nick Ratajczak, each of whom finished with two of JCA's seven hits. But with runners on second and third and two out, Mike Nelson roped a line drive that was snared by Notre Dame shortstop Joe Moran, preventing the tying and perhaps go-ahead runs from scoring.

"We had a ball like that in the Lockport game [a 2-1 loss in the title game of the WJOL Area Baseball Invite], only it was [Dave] Cladis who hit that one," Voss recalled.

Notre Dame threatened to pad its lead in the sixth, but second baseman Ratajczak came to the rescue. If you're a fan of the web gem, you should have seen this one.

The Dons had the bases loaded with one out, and Voss played his infield in. Billy Kerber belted a shot headed for right-center field. Ratajczak reacted, dove to his right and somehow snared the ball, then had the presence of mind to fire to third base and complete the spectacular, inning-ending double play.

Notre Dame did score twice in the seventh to increase its lead to 5-2 and had the bases loaded with one out. But playing in again, Ratajczak dove to stop a ground ball from going up the middle, got to his feet and rifled a throw home for a forceout. Kevin Hulbert, who relieved JCA starter Steve Kazak in the sixth, then retired the next hitter to escape further damage.

"With the balls Nick [Ratjczak] hit hard and the plays he made defensively, he definitely showed he's a ballplayer," Voss said.

Cladis opened the bottom of the seventh with a single, and with one out, Ratajczak lined a shot up the middle off Notre Dame reliever Joe Ufheil for an infield single. Steve Cservenyak roped a single to center to make it 5-3, but a flyout and strikeout ended it.

"This was a pretty good ballgame," Voss said. "The only thing was, the bottom of our order did not put the ball in play enough in situations."

Kazak left after facing one batter in the sixth. He threw more than 100 pitches and went to three balls on just about half the batters he faced.

"This I believe was Steve's first start since the WJOL Tournament," Voss said. "That's tough on a pitcher. The weather's been crazy. We were playing for a while, now before tonight we were off a week.

"We really need to get back in the routine of playing. We weren't even outside practicing for three days last week. We had the field tarped, but the wind blew some of it off, and the field was still a mess."

If the weather cooperates this week, the Hilltoppers will host Notre Dame on Wednesday, visit Lockport on Friday and then at 1 p.m. Sunday will meet No. 1 Carmel in a doubleheader at the home of the Gary SouthShore Railcats.

"We'll make our tour of the minor league parks this year," Voss said with a laugh. "We're playing there because a Carmel graduate just bought the RailCats, and he told Carmel they could play there anytime the field was available."