SCHNECKSVILLE — Northwestern’s reputation as an excellent fastball-hitting team is widely recognized.

In fact, it’s so well known that Notre Dame bypassed starting its ace in Thursday’s Colonial League championship game.

Instead of handing the ball to league MVP and first team all-star pitcher, Steven Luke, Crusaders head coach Michael Bedics went in a different direction.

That move, along with a clutch single from cleanup hitter Ben Gormley, led to a 2-1 victory and the team’s second crown in three years.

It also continued the Tigers’ jinx in the title contest, as Duran Porrino’s club lost there for the fourth time in the past five seasons.

“Their pitcher (Nick Vonelli) was good,” said Porrino. “He’s the type of pitcher you sort of throw against us because we’re a good fastball-hitting team. He pitched against us last year, and he did well against us. I’m not shocked they threw him.”

While Vonelli occassionaly spotted his fastball on the corners, his bread and butter wasn’t his velocity.

“My off-speed really worked for me today,” said Vonelli. “They can hit the fastball, so I wanted to keep them off-balanced. When runners got on, I just had to bear down in those situations. I just let them hit it, pitch to contact, and it worked out. During the second half of the season, we started playing good defense, and I was more confident that if I let them hit it, the defense would make the plays.”

Notre Dame’s biggest moment on defense actually came soon after Vonelli was relieved.

After allowing Northwestern, who had been averaging nine runs a game, just one tally through five innings, Vonelli gave up a pair of one-out singles in the sixth. Luke came on in relief and hit a batter to load the bases, but the senior then induced a grounder to third which was turned into a 5-2-3 double play.

“Something we’ve talked to the kids about is playing defense with pride,” said Bedics. “Defense can change the momentum of a game. And we normally are a good defensive team.”

“It just felt like we had no momentum during the game and when you did have some momentum, they would make an unbelievable catch ... or turn a double play,” said Porrino. “Bases loaded and they turn an incredible double play, but that’s the way it goes. It’s playoff baseball. One or two big plays like that, and that’s the difference.”

Offensively, the biggest play came from Gormley.

Northwestern (19-3) had taken a 1-0 advantage in the home first when Carter Welch doubled to right, moved to third on a Derek Holmes single, and scored on Nick Henry’s groundout.

The Crusaders (18-5) had stranded seven baserunners through the first three frames against Vinny Castrine, but Gormley finally got to him in the fourth. Castrine plunked the first two batters and a sacrifice moved them into scoring position. After a strikeout, Northwestern intentionally walked Luke to get to Notre Dame’s No. 4 hitter.

Gormley delivered a two-run single to left to give his team the lead.

“The kid hit a 1-2 pitch with two outs,” said Porrino. “He put a good swing on it.”

“You know (the intentional walk) is going to happen when Steven gets up to bat,” said Bedics. “(Gormley) has come up with some big basehits for us. He was the right guy in the right spot.”

PLATE PROWESS ... Holmes had three hits for Northwestern, which had its 12-game winning streak snapped, while Henry had two. The Tigers finished with nine hits, but had two players thrown out stealing and one nailed at home trying to score from first on a double in the second inning.

DEFENSIVE GEM ... Northwestern also had a key defensive play. Rafe Perich, who also pitched three scoreless innings in relief, saved at least one run in the third inning from his shortstop position. With runners at second and third with two outs, he made a diving stop in the hole and fired a strike to first to nail the runner.

PORRINO’S TAKE ... “With how many runners they put on base in the first couple innings, you knew eventually they were going to score runs,” said the Tigers head coach. “You could sort of sense early that it was going to be one of those types of games where ... it just wasn’t our day. Part of my worry coming into this was we hadn’t played in a lot of close games. It’s good to play this game now before districts. It was the same thing last year. We lost in the league playoffs, and we responded pretty well from that.”

Notre Dame 000 200 0 - 2 6 0

Northwestern 100 000 0 - 1 9 3

Vonelli, Luke (6) and Yurkovitch; Castrine, Perich (5) and D. Holmes. W - Vonelli. L - Castrine. S - Luke.