CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Kelly Hawks baseball team battled hard on Thursday afternoon, coming up shy of a victory in a 12-11 loss to the Notre Dame Bulldogs. The contest, scheduled originally to be played at Kelly High School, was moved north to Notre Dame due to poor field conditions following the recent rainfall.

With the Hawks listed as the home team on the scoreboard, the numbers began to change quickly for the Bulldogs in the first inning as they piled in six runs before Kelly came to the plate.

Notre Dame scored six in the top of the first, on five errors, three walks and just two hits.

The Hawks answered with two of their own in the bottom half as Ethan Lee, Bryce Faulkner and Ross Lasater strung together three consecutive singles to chip away at the lead.

The Bulldogs added one in the top of the second after Dylan Drury roped a double into the gap and took third on an error in the outfield. Drury scored on a fielder's choice hit by Austin Greer.

Two more runs in the top of the third gave Notre Dame a comfortable 9-2 lead going into the bottom half.

Consecutive singles to begin the bottom of the third put runners on the bases for Kelly. Following a strikeout, Lasater and Craig Ervin brought the two runs across with singles of their own.

After a scoreless Bulldog fourth, Levi Felter came to the plate for the Hawks with a chance to cut away at the lead once more. Felter came up big at the dish with two outs as he belted the 1-2 pitch over the left field fence for a home run. The score remained 9-5 in favor of Notre Dame after a scoreless fifth inning. In the top of the sixth Greer led off the inning with a deep home run blast to left field off of Josh DeBrock. DeBrock would eventually get revenge in the seventh with a strikeout of the Bulldog hitter, but not before the visiting team added two more runs to extend their lead. The Kelly half of the inning was a big, as the Hawks pounded out five hits, two singles, two doubles and a triple, adding six runs in the rally. With six innings in the book, the score was 12-11 heading into the final frame. DeBrock was solid at the mound in the seventh sitting Notre Dame hitters down in order. Bulldog head coach Jeff Graviett brought in Colton Young to close out the game.

Young did just that, fanning three in the final half inning of play, while allowing just one hit.

"When you get a team coming back like that with momentum, you've got to find a way to shut them down," said Graviett after the game. "I thought that big bright spot was Colton (Young) coming in at the end and finding a way to shut it down. They were riding high on their momentum after the sixth inning. We've been looking for that, (for someone to shut it down), whether it's on the mound, defensively or offensively."

"Today, I thought we quit competing offensively," he went on to say. "I challenged them in the sixth and we put a three-spot up. You've got to give Kelly credit, they had 17 hits today. They battled their heart out while they were out there."

Starting pitcher Tanner Hiett was awarded the win for the Bulldogs and was aided at the plate by teammates Greer, Aaron Tomaszewski and Jake Valleroy. Greer picked up three RBI on the day and hit the solo home run that started the sixth inning rally.

Taking the loss for the Hawks was Ervin, who saw nine runs cross the plate while on the hill. Ervin was followed up on the mound by DeBrock, who closed out the game for Kelly in solid relief.

At the plate, five Hawks had multiple hits, including Dustin LeGrand, Dustin Crowden, Felter, Lee and Lasater. Lasater led the way going 3-for-4 with three singles and three RBI, while Felter had a single and a home run.

"We strung together some hits," said Kelly head coach Nate Wills. "Our energy was better I thought. We haven't had many of those big innings this year, and we had one of those big innings today. I'm hoping that's indicative of what's to come.

"Notre Dame has a lot of kids and they're very fundamentally sound," he added. "They have a lot of arms out there that they can throw at you and they're good hitters. When you're playing in a ball park like this, anything can happen with the wind blowing out."