Leveque Scrambles, Holds Hot-Hitting Alemany at Bay

Baseball cliche No. 472: Good pitchers find a way to win when they don’t have their best stuff.

For Notre Dame High’s Chris Leveque, the way he found on Wednesday at Alemany was simple: Get in trouble, get a strikeout.

Leveque was in plenty of trouble and needed all 10 of his strikeouts in five innings as the Knights staggered to a 10-8 Mission League victory.

“We had him on the ropes a couple of times,” Alemany Coach Jim Ozella said, “but he needs to be applauded for getting out of a couple jams with strikeouts.”

The strikeouts were nothing new for Leveque (6-1), who has 29 in his past 19 innings. What came in between--six walks and 10 hits--was the problem.

The first sign that he didn’t have the repertoire that helped him to three shutouts this season was when Chris Tashima hit a hanging curve over the fence in right field on a 1-and-2 count for a three-run home run in the first inning.

Fortunately for Leveque, his teammates had staked him to a 7-4 lead after two innings when he made his greatest escape.

In the third, he struck out the side . . . in between loading the bases on two walks and a hit.

“It was a lot of heart out there,” Notre Dame Coach Tom Dill said.

There were also a lot of runs out there. The Knights (13-4, 5-2 in league play) had been struggling at the plate, coming into the game with only three starters batting over .300.

By contrast, Alemany (12-7, 6-1) had seven .300 hitters, including Nevada-bound third baseman Andy Dominique (.517), who hit his fifth home run in the sixth inning off Rich Igou.

Tashima hit two home runs, adding a two-run blast off Igou in the seventh that pulled Alemany to 10-8.

Pitching the final two innings, Igou allowed the first four earned runs he has given up in 28 innings this season.

Notre Dame first baseman Glen Carson was three for four with two runs batted in. Shortstop Ryan Stromsborg was two for three with a two-run homer in the sixth, his first.

“We haven’t been getting many runs, so this felt good,” Dill said. “It showed we can do it.”