Notre Dame Baseball Drops Two in Miami, Avoids Weekend Sweep in Game 3

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team concluded a three game series with the Miami Hurricanes over the weekend at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables. The Notre Dame offense went silent for the first two games of the series but woke up in game three to avoid the sweep, going 1-2 on the weekend and 6-5 on the season.

Game 1: Miami 3 (6-7, 1-0) - Notre Dame 0 (6-5, 0-1)

Early in game 1 of the series the Notre Dame defense took center (or left) stage. In the bottom of the second inning, Notre Dame left fielder Jake Johnson made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Miami DH Romy Gonzalez of a home run. Unfortunately the catch wasn’t enough, as a single and back-to-back doubles drove in two runs for the Hurricanes.

Miami tacked on another run in the seventh when an Andrew Belcik wild pitch put Miami up 3-0. Unfortunately for the Irish their offense that has set a blistering pace to start the season went quiet on Friday night. Miami starter Jeb Bargfeldt pitched 7.2 shutout innings before the bullpen finished off the game and Miami took game one.

W: Jeb Bargfeldt, UM (2-1)

L: Scott Tully, ND (1-1)

S: Cooper Hammond , UM (1)

Game 2: Miami 9 (7-7, 2-0) - Notre Dame 0 (6-6, 0-2)

Game 2 of the series was all Miami from the beginning, and unfortunately for the Irish, the bats went silent again.

In the third inning Irish starter Tommy Sheehan surrendered a solo home run to Willy Escala to give the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the seventh Miami loaded the bases with nobody out. After a walk and a single Miami went up 4-0.

In the eighth inning Miami put up five more runs after stringing together six hits and went up 9-0, earning the win by the same score.

W: Evan McKendry, UM (3-1)

L: Tommy Sheehan, ND (1-1)

S: Frankie Bartow, UM (1)

Game 3: Notre Dame 9 (7-6, 1-2) - Miami 5 (7-8, 2-1)

Miami jumped out to the early lead again in game 3, taking a 1-0 lead on two walks and a single to left field. Notre Dame respinded immediately in the top of the second when Eric Gilgenbach was hit by a pitch and stole second. Jared Miller drove him in with a single up the middle and tied the game at 1.

Notre Dame would add two more in the third. Cole Daily reached on an error and Nick Podkul homered to left field to put Notre Dame up 3-1.

David LaManna singled in the fourth inning and advanced to third on an error. Jared Miller drove in his second run of the game with a sacrifice fly and the Irish took a 4-1 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth Miami struck back, scoring two runs on a sacrifice fly and fielder’s choice to cut the Irish lead to 4-3. Miami would add two more on a double and RBI ground out to take a 5-4 lead.

In the seventh inning Notre Dame tied the game when Cole Daily doubled and was driven in by Matt Vierling. Neither team could add anything more through nine and the game would go to extra innings tied at 5.

In the top of the tenth inning Notre Dame loaded the bases with just one out. Alex Kerschner pinch hit and doubled to drive in two runs and give the Irish a 7-5 lead. A fielding error would allow two more runs to score before the inning was over and Miami was unable to answer in the bottom half of the inning, giving Notre Dame the 9-5 victory.

W: Matt Vierling, ND (1-1)

L: Andrew Cabezas, UM (0-2)

Up Next

Notre Dame heads to Port Charlotte, Fl for the Snowbird Tournament. They will take on St. Joseph’s in a two game series starting Tuesday March 13.