FRANKLIN FURNACE — The Notre Dame Titans took a big step in their pursuit of a Southern Ohio Conference Division I championship on Tuesday with their 5-0 win at Green.

Both the Titans and Bobcats entered their second meeting of the season with two losses to SOC I opponents, making it a first place showdown in Franklin Furnace.

After taking their meeting back on April 24 1-0, ND again shutout Green with freshman pitcher Luke Cassidy on the mound.

Cassidy allowed just two hits and struck out 15 Bobcat hitters while issuing four walks in the complete game win.

“Luke was pretty good, starting to get tired there at the end which you expect,” ND coach Jayson Coleman said, after the game. “He’s the best we’ve got, so we’re just going to ride him. If we’re going to lose, we’ll do it with him. Very proud of him and our defense.”

In each of the four innings where the Titans plated a run, it was their leadoff runner who got on base and eventually scored.

ND collected seven hits as a team, including two by senior Alex Cassidy. Myles Phillips, Luke Cassidy, Reagan Lester, Ethan Kingery, and Bryce McGraw each had a hit in the victory.

Two of the Titans’ five runs were earned against Green starting pitcher Nathaniel Brannigan.

“It’s big getting that leadoff runner on,” Coleman said.

“We left some base runners on or got them thrown out, same thing happened when we played them the first time. That’s on me as much as it is the kids. We’ve just got to clean things up and keep getting better.”

As of Thursday following their 10-0 win against Clay, the Titans (15-6) officially clinched a share of the SOC I championship with Ironton St. Joe.

“That was one of our goals at the beginning of the season. We had a slip at Symmes Valley, just didn’t get the job done. But we responded well last night at North Adams, tonight against Green. I like how we’re playing right now.”

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BOX SCORE

Notre Dame 011 102 0 — 5 7 1

Green 000 000 0 — 0 2 3

W: Luke Cassidy (ND) 7IP, 2H, 0ER, 4BB, 15K; L: Nathaniel Brannigan (G) 7IP, 7H, 2ER, 0BB, 6K

Notre Dame hitting

Myles Phillips 1-4

Luke Cassidy 1-3, RBI

Alex Cassidy 2-3, R

Reagan Lester 1-2, 2R

Ethan Kingery 1-3, RBI, R

Bryce McGraw 1-3, R

Green hitting

Landon Kimbler 1-2, BB

Nathaniel Brannigan 0-2, BB

Braxton Conschafsky 0-2, BB

Quincy Merrill 1-3

Levi Waddell 0-0, BB

Reach Jacob Smith at (740) 370-0713 ext. 1930, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter @JacobSmithPDT © 2023 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved