Notre Dame Baseball: Irish Take Series From Boston College

Coming off a series win against the Virginia Tech Hokies, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team played a game against the Valparaiso Crusaders Wednesday, winning 6-5. They followed that up with a weekend series against the Boston College Eagles.

Notre Dame won Friday night on a walk-off before dropping the Saturday matchup. They pulled out a win on Sunday to take the series, their second straight series win in ACC play.

Notre Dame 5 (19-23, 9-13) - Boston College 4 (14-27, 5-17)

Notre Dame opened the scoring in the second inning. Matt Vierling led off the inning with a walk before Niko Kavadas hit a home run over the right field wall to make it 2-0 Irish. An inning later Jake Johnson connected for a solo shot to give Notre Dame a 3-0 lead.

That score held until the top of the seventh, when Boston College finally solved Irish starter Scott Tully. With the bases loaded, Gian Martellini hit a grand slam that hit off of and over the top of the wall to give the Eagles a 4-3 lead.

The lead didn’t last long though, as Notre Dame struck back in the bottom half of the inning. With two outs, Daniel Jung singled and moved to third on a Spencer Myers double. He scored on a wild pitch and tied the game at 4.

The game went into extra innings tied at 4 before Notre Dame won it in the tenth. Jake Johnson reached on an infield single and Nick Podkul walked. With two men on, Niko Kavadas singled to right field, scoring Johnson and winning the game 5-4.

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Notre Dame starter Scott Tully worked into the eighth inning for his second consecutive start and third time in five starts, throwing 7.2 innings and striking out five. Cole Kmet earned the win for Notre Dame after pitching the tenth inning.

W: Cole Kmet, ND (1-4)

L: Thomas Lane, BC (1-4)

Boston College 6 (15-27, 6-17) - Notre Dame 0 (19-24, 9-14)

Saturday was Notre Dame’s annual Strikeout ALS Game to benefit the Pete Frates 3 Fund. For those of you that don’t know, Frates is a former Boston College baseball player where he played for now Irish coach Mik Aoki. Frates was diagnosed with ALS in 2012, shortly after graduating from BC, and is one of the creators and the public face of the viral ALS Ice Bucket Challenge from a few years ago, intended to raise awareness and money to research the disease.

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As far as the game goes, this one was all Boston College. In the top of the second, the Eagles opened the scoring on a sacrifice fly from Jake Alu to take a 1-0 lead.

Boston College added runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Dante Baldelli scored on an RBI single from Chris Galland in the fifth. In the sixth, Anthony Maselli doubled before eventually coming around to score on a wild pitch.

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Boston College added three more runs in the eighth inning to extend their lead and held on to win the game 6-0. Eagles starter Dan Metzdorf threw 8.0 scoreless innings while striking out three Irish batters for his first win of the season.

W: Dan Metzdorf, BC (1-6)

L: Zack Martin, ND (1-1)

Notre Dame 5 (20-24, 10-14) - Boston College 4 (15-28, 6-18)

After being shutout on Saturday, Notre Dame started things early on Sunday. Jake Johnson walked with one out in the first before Nick Podkul doubled to drive him home for a 1-0 lead.

The lead didn’t last long though, as Boston College scored three in the third to take the lead. Chris Gallanad opened the scoring with a single to drive home Dante Baldelli and tied the game at one. Baldelli scored on a single by Jack Cunningham, who later came around to score on a bases loaded walk.

In the bottom of the fourth, Niko Kavadas reached base for Notre Dame on a fielder’s choice. Eric Gilgenbach followed with a home run to left field that tied the game at three.

Boston College took the lead back in the top half of the fifth inning. Joe Suozzi led off the inning with a double and later came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Jake Alu, giving the Eagles a 4-3 lead.

The Irish rallied in the eighth though to take back the lead. Nick Podkul was hit by a pitch and Matt Vierling walked to put two men on base. Alex Kerschner was intentionally walked to load the bases and Niko Kavadas singled to score Podkul and tie the game. Eric Gilgenbach followed with a ground ball to shortstop that was not fielded cleanly, allowing Vierling to score as the go ahead run. Notre Dame failed to get any insurance runs, but held on to win 5-4.

W: Cole Kmet, ND (2-4)

L: Thomas Lane, BC (1-5)

Up Next

Notre Dame has four more games to close out their home schedule for the season. They play a Tuesday game against the Western Michigan Broncos before three games over the weekend against the Pittsburgh Panthers, all at home, before heading out on the road to close out their regular season.