The spring sports season is a blur in many ways with so many practices and games crammed into a short period of time. The same can be said this year as postseason play is underway for the Notre Dame spring sports teams.
Athlete of the Year — Zackary Hochman has achieved a lot as a two-sport student-athlete during his Notre Dame career. You can now add Athlete of the Year to an already impressive resume as he was awarded this honor at Notre Dame’s Annual Athletic Awards Recognition Ceremony on May 21. A three-year varsity letter winner in lacrosse and two-year varsity letter winner in football, Hochman helped guide the Notre Dame football and lacrosse teams to winning seasons this past season. He is the lacrosse program’s all-time leading goal scorer and led the football team in six categories this past fall. He is headed to UMass to play lacrosse. You can read more on this award and the others bestowed that night on GoGreenKnights.com.
Baseball — It took 378 pitches, 26 hours, 11 innings, and two bus rides, pregame speeches, and infield-outfield warm ups before Notre Dame was ultimately ousted from the SCC Tournament. A game that started on Monday, May 20 ended on Tuesday, May 21 when Mother Nature delayed a game that was 3-3 in the seventh inning. North Haven’s Matt Soloman hit a two-run home run in the top of the 11th inning that proved to be the difference as fifth-seeded North Haven squeezed by 4th-seeded Notre Dame in the opening round of the SCC baseball playoffs.
The Green Knights tried to rally starting its 11th inning with a double and triple but couldn’t push across the tying run. Notre Dame began CIAC Class L state tournament play on Tuesday when they hosted Ellis Tech.
Golf — Each year, the Notre Dame golf team send two players to the prestigious two-man best-ball CHAPPA Invitational event held annually in late May at the Longshore Golf Course in Westport.
Tommy Rosati and Jake Ivan-Pal represented the Green Knights on May 23. And they represented well! The duo shot a 3-under 66 on the par 69 course and finished one-shot out of a playoff. Notre Dame participated in the SCC Tournament on May 28, and will play in the CIAC Division II state tournament on June 3.
Tennis — The doubles team of Brendan Canning and Pranav Kuraganti had an excellent regular season and the reward was qualifying for the CIAC Class L state tournament. Canning and Puraganti were given a tough opponent in the bracketing process as they were matched up against the tournament’s two-seed Christopher Calderwood and Romano DeCaprio from Darien in the opening round held at the East Hartford Racquet Club on May 24. Kuraganti opened the match by holding serve but the Darien duo went on a six-game run to win the first set. 6-1.
Canning and Kuraganti went on to win two games in the second set before falling. 6-1, 6-2.
Track — Fresh off an SCC West Championship, the Notre Dame track team followed that up with a fourth place showing at the SCC Championship Meet on Monday, May 21, at Lyman Hall HS. Warren Murphy was one of two Green Knights to win an event when he ran the 400-meter dash in 49.76 seconds. Jason Sawicki cleared 6-06 to win the high jump while that leap also qualified him for nationals later this season. Notre Dame will return to competition when they participated in the 2019 Class L Championship Meet yesterday Middletown HS.
You can get all the latest athletic news, scores, and more by following @NDWHAthletics on Twitter, Instagram, and Periscope while frieNDing the @NDWHAthletics Facebook group.