Five-run 6th inning lifts No. 4 Williamstown over Notre Dame

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — Class A No. 4 Williamstown scored eight combined runs in the sixth and seventh innings to pull away from Notre Dame for a 12-6 win on Monday night from the Bridgeport Recreation Complex.

“This is really a nice park – this was really fun,” said Williamstown coach Terry Smith. “Both teams played hard. It was tight for five innings, but you’ve got to play the whole game.

“This was one of the better teams that we’ve played,” he continued. “I still think we can get a lot better. We scored 12 runs, so that can’t be bad. But giving up six is kind of a lot.”

The two teams were tied 4-4 after five innings before the Yellowjackets took control, scoring five runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh.

Evan Amos led Williamstown on the night, going 3-for-4 with four runs scored and an RBI in the win.

“He’s been playing well and it’s his senior year,” Smith said. “He started as a freshman and now it’s his senior year — he should be good. He’s hitting around .700 through six games. It’s early, but he deserves it because he works at it.”

Cullen Cutright, 6-foot-4, picked up the win on the mound, going six innings and giving up four runs, while striking out four.

“They fourth, fifth and six innings he threw better than he did early in the game,” Smith said. “He’s so big, it looks to me like he could throw even harder. We have a lot of faith in him and I’m going to hand him the ball a lot. We’re going to find out how far he can take us.”

Jeremiah Ritter led Notre Dame (0-2), going 2-for-3 with four RBIs in the loss.

It’s a Williamstown team that improved to 6-0 with the win and has high expectations early in the season.

“We had four seniors starting in the infield tonight and those guys have played a lot of baseball,” Smith said. “Those guys have played a lot of baseball and we expect to be good.

“We plan on being good and on certain nights we are,” he continued. “But it all comes down to pitching and I thought Cullen pitched really well tonight.”