The Niles Notre Dame Dons will be playing in front of their home fans against the Maine South Hawks at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Niles Notre Dame has seven straight wins, Maine South has four straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
On Monday, Niles Notre Dame had just enough and edged Loyola Academy out 3-2. Despite the victory, that was the fewest points Niles Notre Dame has scored all season.
Nick Baffa made a splash while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run while striking out 11 over seven innings pitched. Baffa has been consistent recently: he hasn't tossed less than nine strikeouts in three consecutive pitching appearances. Baffa was also big at the plate, getting on base in three of his five plate appearances with a double and an RBI.
In other pitching news, Nick Agron looked comfortable as he pitched an inning while giving up no earned runs or hits (he also only allowed one walk).
Back at the plate, Dominic Holton was excellent, getting on base in three of his five plate appearances with two RBI.
Meanwhile, Maine South came up short against Huntley on Monday and fell 4-1.
Niles Notre Dame pushed their record up to 6-0 with that win, which was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season. Those good results were due in large part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.0 runs per game. As for Maine South, their loss dropped their record down to 1-4.
Niles Notre Dame came out on top in a nail-biter against Maine South in their previous matchup back in May of 2022, sneaking past 6-4. Does Niles Notre Dame have another victory up their sleeve, or will Maine South turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps