Don Ketchum
Former Staff Writer, AZPreps365.com

Notre Dame baseball magic continues with walk-off home run

March 5, 2013 by Don Ketchum, AZPreps365


More and more, it seems like the 2013 baseball season is going to be magical for Scottsdale Notre Dame Prep.

The Saints won the recent Scottsdale Invitational by defeating some of its powerful fellow city schools, such as Division I Chaparral and Desert Mountain. Three of the tourney wins were of the come-from-behind variety.

Tuesday (March 5) brought a new challenge for the Division II Saints, when they played host to Fountain Hills, which was unbeaten and one of the top teams in Division III.

Fountain Hills held the upper hand for most of the afternoon, until Notre Dame’s magic took over in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Down 6-4, Notre Dame  scored a pair of runs to tie it on a pair of hits and an error, then used a two-out, two-run walk-off home run by Nick Affronti for an 8-6 victory, the team’s fourth rally for a win.

Notre Dame (6-1) jumps back into the bubbling cauldron on Wednesday night (March 6), when it travels for a rematch against Desert Mountain.

“It doesn’t get any easier,’’ said Notre Dame coach Brian Fischer.

“We believe we can win every game, although we know we are not going to play good every day.

“It helped us today that we have been in this situation before this season, but we know we are not always going to be able to wait until the seventh inning to decide what is going to happen. We have to start doing more earlier in the game.’’

Fountain Hills (10-1) coach Mike Briguglio put left-hander Nick Wojtysiak on the mound, and the junior kept Notre Dame off-balance for most of the game.

“It was the first left-hander we have seen this season,’’ Fischer said.

Briguglio said Wojtysiak was at 110 pitches when he pulled him in favor of right-hander Andrew Bryniarski with one out in the seventh.

“He (Wojtysiak) had a pretty easy sixth inning, threw only like 7-8 pitches, and he earned the right to come out for the seventh,’’ Briguglio said.

With a courtesy runner at first, Bryniarski struck out one man for the second out. Affronti then stepped to the plate. He was hitless in three-previous at-bats, but he had collected 10 hits in the Scottsdale tournament. There was little doubt when the ball left the bat that it was gone.

Fountain Hills had won the Joe Padilla Tournament over the weekend and was looking to continue the momentum.

“We thought we had ‘em,’’ Briguglio said. “Our pitcher did a good job. He battled the entire way.’’

The rest of the season won’t come crashing down on the Falcons.

They face Division III state runner-up Goodyear Estrella Foothills later this week. Fountain Hills defeated Foothills in the Padilla tournament.

“We are focusing on the process. It’s not a matter of who we play, whether it’s Notre Dame or the (New York) Yankees. We have to execute in each situation, do what we do best,’’ Briguglio said.