Notre Dame Baseball Swept by Arizona State

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team opened their season this past weekend with a visit to Phoenix for a series with the Arizona State Sun Devils. Notre Dame ran into an offense in Arizona State that was well prepared for the opener, as they scored 46 runs over the three games and swept the series.

Notre Dame now heads to San Antonio for the Alamo Irish Classic. They will look to pick up their first wins of the season with four games against the Eastern Michigan Eagles and the Incarnate Word Cardinals.

Game 1: Notre Dame 1 (0-1) - Arizona State 10 (1-0)

Arizona State opened the scoring in the second inning of game 1. With two outs in the bottom of the second the Sun Devils scored the first run of the game on an RBI double. They then followed that up by loading the bases before taking a 4-0 lead on a bases clearing double by Spencer Torkelson.

Zack Martin came out of the bullpen for Notre Dame after a fifth run in the third inning and threw 2.1 scoreless innings. Notre Dame scored their first and only run of the game when Niko Kavadas launched a solo home run to right field in the top of the seventh inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, Arizona State responded by scoring five runs to put the game out of reach.

W: Alec Marsh, ASU (1-0)

L: Tommy Sheehan, ND (0-1)

Game 2: Notre Dame 7 (0-2) - Arizona State 20 (2-0)

After scoring only one run in the seventh inning in game 1, Notre Dame jumped right out to an early lead in game 2. Ryan Cole started things with a single and advanced to second on a fielder’s choice. With two outs, Jared Miller sneaked a hit through the right side of the infield and Cole beat the tag at the plate for a 1-0 lead.

The lead didn’t last long though, as in the bottom of the first Arizona State plated three runs on a string of hits to take a 3-1 lead.

Notre Dame regained the lead though in the top of the third. Eric Gilgenbach launched a two run home run to left field to tie the game. Niko Kavadas helped the Irish regain the lead by scoring on a passed ball.

Arizona State tied the game in the bottom half of the fourth inning before breaking the game open and scoring seven runs in the fifth and six runs in the sixth. They added three more runs in the seventh inning to bring them to 20.

W: Blake Burzell, ASU (1-0)

L: Cole Kmet, ND (0-1)

Game 3: Notre Dame 5 (0-3) - Arizona State 16 (3-0)

Arizona State jumped out to an early lead again in game 3 with a two run home run. Notre Dame responded with a run in the bottom of the second on an RBI single by Zack Prajzner.

The Sun Devils kept their offense hot with three more runs in the bottom of the second before Notre Dame added two more in the top of the third. Daniel Jung scored on a fielder’s choice and Ryan Cole scored on a double steal to cut the deficit to 5-3.

Arizona State then scored two runs in the third before adding runs in each of the fourth through seventh innings to put the game out of reach.

W: RJ Dabovich, ASU (1-0)

L: Cameron Junker, ND (0-1)