Notre Dame Advances to Title Game Behind Yewman's Historic Performance
By Alex Cheban, lead writer
Appleton, WI-
The second game of the Division 2 semifinals was one to remember for Notre Dame fans. Ty Yewman fanned 17 River Valley players and took a perfect game into 5th inning as the Tritons beat the Blackhawks 8-1 to advance to the state final.
Notre Dame brought their bats to state with them, as they scored 8 runs on 10 hits. They scored in the first two innings on a Noah Wleczyk triple to center field that drew in a run as the centerfielder got his feet tangled up on the play and fell down. Nick Martzhal drove in the second run of the game for the Tritons with a single down the left field line, which gave them a 2-0 lead after the first two innings.
Ty Yewman retired the first 13 batters of the game in order. During that stretch, he struck out 10 of them and fielded two ground balls were he flipped it to first. He only allowed one hit through six innings, which meant he retired 16 of the 17 batters he faced to that point in the game.
Notre Dame had the bats going again in the sixth inning as Nick Martzahl and Davis Elm bashed back-to-back hits and later would score on an error and suicide squeeze by Sean Green on separate plays respectively. Notre Dame would lead 4-0 after 5 ½ innings.
Yewman continued to deal his near-perfect game through 6 six innings as it seemed to be the Tritons would be moving on to the title game on Thursday.
The Triton offense added 4 insurance runs in the 7th inning. Wleczyk got that started with a double to left field that hit the wall. Yewman helped his own cause with RBI single to right field. Gage Garrity then drove in the pitcher with a double down the right field line as well. Martzahl added to his RBI total with a sac fly to right field. Notre Dame had a comfortable 8-0 lead.
River Valley’s bats finally showed some life in the 7th but it was too little too late. Ryan Wickman started things off with a leadoff single. Cole Mahoney singled to second base as the ball took a wicked hop on 2nd basemen Sean Green, which broke up the shutout.
Yewman threw the complete game 3 hitter only giving up 1 earned run and striking out 17 batters. That tied a Division 2 record as he now has the second most strikeouts in a single game along with Kimberly’s BJ Hoffman from 1993.
Wleczyk went 2 for 2 with 1 RBI and with a double and triple and Nick Martzahl was 2 for 2 with 2 RBIs for the Tritons.
River Valley’s Mahoney went 2 for 3 in the loss.
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Blackhawk starting pitcher Matthew Yanke was only able to pitch 3.1 innings, and gave up 4 hits on 2 earned runs. He was able to strike out 3 guys but walked 4.
The Tritons advance to their second state title game in 3 years to face Milwaukee Lutheran at 3pm at Fox Cities Stadium.
