PONTIAC >> Friday’s low-scoring contest with Troy is just the type that Notre Dame Prep has become accustomed to playing in, and more often than not, winning.

The Fighting Irish again relied on their strengths on the mound and in the field, winning their eighth game in a row by defeating the Colts 3-2.

“We’re all pitching and defense,” Irish head coach Jason Gendreau said. “Every now and again, our offense will score four or five, and it’s amazing, but we go into every game just trying to get to three or four runs because we know we’re going to give up very few. Owen (Fulsher) was good today. It wasn’t his best, but at the same time, he also caught a couple games this week because he’s also our starting catcher, so all that being said, I thought he did a nice job.”

Fulsher went 5 2/3 innings, only conceding runs at the end of his start after the Colts had seen him several times through the order. The heart of Troy’s order — Miles Carter, Gabe Geisner and Ethan Hucal — all had consecutive singles to start the top of the sixth, then a pair of sacrifice flies by the Colts cut Notre Dame Prep’s three-run lead to one before Drake Roa entered in relief to get out of the inning.

A single by Nick Aretha to start the seventh gave Troy hope of tying or scoring a go-ahead run, but Roa induced contact limited to the infield on the next three at-bats to preserve the win and pick up the save.

Two of Notre Dame Prep’s runs were scored with a pair of outs in the bottom of the first. After Tomassino Offer reached on an error, Fulsher singled him in for a 1-0 lead, then an error allowed Jack Leuchtmann to get on base thanks to another miscue by Troy, and Ethan Janssen drove in the pinch runner for Leuchtmann, Jake Lei, putting the Irish up by two.

Colts freshman Cullen Adams, making his fourth start of the season, scattered seven hits over five frames, locating his pitches well as he gave up just one earned run on an RBI single by sophomore Jack Fallon, who had three of Notre Dame Prep’s hits.

“We really like Cullen a lot,” Colts head coach Joe D’Orazio said. “We kind of played it slow early on, he got his feet under him, then kind of picked and chose our matchups (for him) in the past two weeks and he’s been facing some pretty good competition. He had Rochester on Saturday, learned a couple things and had another solid outing.

“The nice thing about him is he’s not afraid to throw any of his pitches in any count. He works backwards a lot, a lot of 3-2 curveballs and 3-2 changeups today, which keeps guys off-balance. And then he did a great job and threw a lot more strikes today, not as many walks, which is something we’ve been trying to clean up the past couple weeks. He’s going to be a good one for us.”

Following some struggles by the hitters at the top of the order in Thursday’s 11-5 loss at Groves, Troy’s top three hitters (Davey Crockett, Carter, Geisner) went 4-for-10 on Friday. All three are hitting over .350 on the season for the Colts (16-10).

“I think they were 1-for-12 yesterday, so they rebounded,” D’Orazio said. “They got challenged yesterday after the game. We didn’t really play well then, but they’ve been our No. 1-3 guys for a reason, so a pretty special group up top there. They’ll keep giving us opportunities every game out.”

Now 16-5 on the season, Notre Dame Prep (ranked No. 12 in Division 2) came into Friday having allowed just over two runs per game. With a staff led by Henry Ewles (Lehigh) and an offensive that Gendreau might classify as short of prolific, narrow margins have defined most outcomes for the Irish.

“I’m not sure I love one-run games, but we have 11 kids that were on either a state championship football or soccer teams, and down the stretch, they had those runs, those moments, and it pays dividends, because they’re challenged,” Gendreau said. “They’re battle-tested. However, today there was some verbal and non-verbal that, by choice, you get in your own way, and we have to be above that and stay focused and understand that against good teams like Troy, it’s going to come down to the wire and it’s never going to be easy.

“We’re figuring out ways to win. We’ve got a couple outfielders that are banged up, and when you only have 14 players as it is, it definitely strains you.”

The Irish had a quick turnaround with two games in the Grosse Pointe South Tournament on Saturday. Troy, meanwhile, returns to action with Senior Night on Monday against Stoney Creek.