The swing season is upon is even if the weather isn’t! After baseball and lacrosse got underway in March, the first week of April saw the golf, tennis, and track teams join the action.
Baseball — The Notre Dame baseball team split a pair of games last week to move to 2-1 on the season. Eddie Zanor was the story of the game against Hamden on April 3. Zanor threw a complete-game gem, allowing one run on four hits while striking out eight and only walking two. The lefty headed to Wesleyan threw 92 pitches in the complete-game effort as Notre Dame beat Hamden, 11-1.
Mason Brenchak, Max Mariano, Zanor, and Noah Ferrucci all managed multiple hits with Brenchak leading the way with three hits, three runs scored, and an RBI. Notre Dame pounded out 13 hits against four Hamden pitchers. The Green Knights were not as fortunate in their other game as Westhill jumped out to a 5-0 first inning lead in their SCC-FCIAC battle. The Green Knights mustered only three hits off a pair of Westhill pitchers. Noah Ferrucci had two of the three Notre Dame hits.
Golf — The golf team got its season off to a hot start with a pair of wins in windy and cool weather. Jake Ivan-Pal fired a one-over par 36 to lead the Green Knights to a one-stroke win over Shelton in the season opening match for both teams.
Notre Dame shot a team score of 159 to edge Shelton by one stroke as the Gaels fired a 160. Notre Dame’s other counting scores included a 39 from Tommy Rosati, 40 from Jon Bushka, and 44 from Joe D’Agostino. Against Guilford on April 4. Bushka earned medalist honors with a 3-over par 38 to lead the Green Knights, who shot a team score of 167. Guilford fired a 190 team score. Bushka’s round consisted of one birdie and five pars, only needing 14 putts to carve out his solid round. Notre Dame also received a solid effort from Tommy Rosati, who carded a round of 39, while Ryan Hayes added a 43.
Lacrosse — Alex Hird scored his fourth goal of the game with six minutes left in the fourth quarter in what turned out to be the game-winning goal as Notre Dame beat Hall, 6-5, on April 4. Hall answered with a goal and had a few chances to tie the game but some strong Green Knight defense and some quality saves from Max Arnold kept the Green Knights in the lead for good. Justin Shanley and Zachary Hochman scored Notre dame’s other two goals. Earlier in the week, Notre Dame dropped a second straight game to Weston. After a 13-10 loss in 2018, Weston won this year by a 9-6 score on Tuesday, April 2. Hird and Michael Card scored two goals each for Notre Dame.
Tennis — The Notre Dame tennis team lost nine starters to graduation after the 2018 season. The young Green Knights have been competitive in their three losses, falling, 4-3, to North Haven, 5-2 to Shelton, and 6-1 to a good Branford squad. Pranav Kuraganti was the lone Green Knight to post multiple wins. He teamed with Brendan canning for a doubles win over Branford and won a singles match against North Haven to start the season.
Track
Carlos Aurora won three events for the track team who lost a close and competitive meet with perennial SCC power Xavier to start the 2019 season. Xavier won 74-67. Aurora won the 100-meter dash in 11.1 seconds and followed that up with a 200-meter dash win in 24.0 seconds. He also ran the lead leg of the 4×100 relay teams’ win as he joined Anthony Jenkins, Casey Tonelli and Elijah Blocker as they ran the event in 46.1 seconds. Other winners for Notre Dame included: Jared Russo (110 high hurdles – 16.0 seconds); Garrett Jones (long jump – 19-4.75); Johan Klein-Robbenhaar (discus – 98-7); and Maxwell Bothwell (pole vault – 11-0).
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