Notre Dame Baseball: Irish Swept by Louisville to Close Out Regular Season

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team closed out their regular season against the Louisville Cardinals with three games in Louisville. The Irish were swept by the Cardinals, losing all three games on the weekend.

Notre Dame now heads into ACC tournament play beginning Tuesday.

Louisville 5 (38-16, 16-12) - Notre Dame 4 (24-26, 12-16)

Notre Dame opened the scoring in the first inning of the game. Jake Johnson and Nick Podkul both walked with one out. Matt Vierling then came up to bat and singled home Johnson for a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the second, Louisville tied the game when Pat Rumoro singled with runners on the corners. Louisville took a 3-1 lead in the third on a two run home run by Logan Wyatt and added a fourth run in the fifth inning when Wyatt singled home a run for a 4-1 lead.

Notre Dame rallied to tie the game in the eighth when Matt Vierling tripled with two runners on to make it a 4-3 game. Vierling then scored on a wild pitch to tie it at 4. The tie wouldn’t last long though, as Louisville won the game on a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth inning.

W: Austin Conway, UL (3-1)

L: Andrew Belcik, ND (2-2)

Louisville 5 (39-16, 17-12) - Notre Dame 0 (24-27, 12-17)

Louisville opened the scoring in the third inning when Jake Snider singled home Tyler Fitzgerald for a 1-0 lead. The Cardinals added another run in the fifth when Justin Lavey, after drawing a leadoff walk, scored on a double play for a 2-0 lead.

In the sixth inning, Louisville strung together a series of hits to add two more runs for a 4-0 lead. They added another in the eighth on a single from Tyler Fitzgerald for a 5-0 win.

W: Nick Bennett, UL (7-1)

L: Cameron Brown, ND (2-1)

Louisville 10 (40-16, 18-12) - Notre Dame 7 (24-28, 12-18)

Notre Dame took the early lead in the top of the first inning when Cole Daily hit his third home run of the season. They added a second run on a single from Niko Kavadas for a 2-0 lead. In the third inning Nick Podkul hit his eighth home run of the season for a 3-0 lead.

Louisville tied the game with three runs in the bottom half of the third. Justin Lavey and Tyler Fitzgerald started things with back-to-back doubles to make it a 3-1 game. Louisville added two more runs on a throwing error and an RBI bunt single by Josh Stowers.

In the top of the fourth, Notre Dame added four runs to take the lead back. With two on, David LaManna singled up the middle to score both. With two runners on again, Jake Johnson singled home LaManna followed by a Nick Podkul sacrifice fly to put Notre Dame up 7-3.

Louisville got two runs back in the fifth on a two run home run by Stowers. They scored again in the seventh on an RBI single by Ethan Stringer to make it a 7-6 lead for Notre Dame.

The eighth inning saw Louisville take the lead for good. A sacrifice fly tied the game at seven before Stowers struck again, this time a three run home run, to give the Cardinals a 10-7 lead. That is how the game would finish as Notre Dame was held scoreless in the ninth.

W: Bryan Hoeing, UL (7-2)

L: Zack Martin, ND (2-2)

S: Michael McAvene, UL (2)

Up Next

Notre Dame now enters the ACC tournament with their NCAA tournament hopes riding on winning the whole thing. The Irish were drawn into a pool with the Clemson Tigers and the Miami Hurricanes, taking on the Hurricanes on Tuesday and Tigers on Wednesday. The winner of the round robin pool will advance to the semifinals on Saturday.