Notre Dame Baseball Wins Two at Wake Forest

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team traveled to Winston-Salem, NC this past weekend and opened up their ACC schedule with a three game series against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. After Friday’s game was postponed due to weather, the two teams played one on Saturday and a double header on Sunday. Notre Dame came away from the weekend with two wins out of three for their first series win of the season and a fast start to conference play.

Game 1: Notre Dame 7 (5-7, 1-0) - Wake Forest 4 (8-7, 0-1)

The first game of the series started off slow, as both teams were held scoreless through the first three innings. Irish starter Tommy Sheehan threw two consecutive on-two-three innings in the second and third before Notre Dame struck first in the top of the fourth.

Daniel Jung led off the top of the fourth inning for Notre Dame and drove a pitch out to right field for a home run and a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the inning, Wake Forest answered with a home run of their own, a two run home run, for a 2-1 lead. In the bottom of the fifth, Wake Forest added a solo home run to extend the lead.

Notre Dame cut the lead back to one run in the top of the sixth inning. After reaching base on a single, Ethan Copeland came around to score after a bunt hit by Spencer Myers led to a throwing error by Wake Forest. In the bottom half of the inning, Wake hit another solo home run to extend the lead again to two runs.

In the top of the seventh, Eric Gilgenbach led off for Notre Dame with a double off the wall. Two sacrifice bunts would bring him around to score and cut the Wake Forest lead to 4-3. Notre Dame finally regained the lead in the top of the eighth inning with two runners on and one out. Niko Kavadas was at the plate and with the count full, struck a home run to regain the lead 6-4. Notre Dame added an insurance run in the ninth and held on for the 7-4 win.

W: Shane Combs, ND (1-0)

L: Antonio Menendez, WF (0-1)

S: Cole Kmet, ND (2)

Game 2: Notre Dame 4 (5-8, 1-1) - Wake Forest 7 (9-7, 1-1)

Unlike game 1, game 2 started quickly right off the bat. In the bottom half of the first inning, Brendan Tinsman came up to the plate for Wake Forest with the bases loaded and cleared the bases with a double for a 3-0 lead.

Notre Dame came back to tie the game in the top of the fourth. With Carter Putz and Niko Kavadas on base, Eric Gilgenbach hit a home run to left field and tied the game. It was short lived though, as Wake Forest took the lead back in the bottom half of the inning when they struck together a few hits to bring in a run.

In the top half of the fifth Notre Dame again tied the game when Daniel Jung flew out for a sacrifice fly to score Ethan Copeland. Wake Forest scored again to take the lead in the bottom of the seventh and added two insurance runs in the eighth for the 7-4 win.

W: William Fleming, WF (1-2)

L: Andrew Belcik, ND (0-1)

Game 3: Notre Dame 8 (6-8, 2-1) - Wake Forest 7 (9-8, 1-2)

Wake Forest again took the early lead in the second game of the Sunday double header in the third inning, scoring two runs. In the top of the fourth, Notre Dame strung together a series of base hits, including doubles by David LaManna and Brooks Coetzee, and scored three runs to take the lead. LaManna picked up another hit in the fifth to drive in another run for the Irish.

Wake Forest added a run in the fifth before tying the game and taking the lead in the sixth. A wild pitch from Notre Dame led to the fifth run of the day for Wake Forest then added one more for a 6-4 lead. Wake added one more in the bottom half of the seventh for the 7-4 lead.

Notre Dame trailed by three entering in the ninth inning before rallying to tie the game. Carter Putz started the scoring by grounding into a fielder’s choice to score John Arndorfer. Later in the inning, Eric Gilgenbach came up with the bases loaded and singled home two runs to tie the game.

The game went into the tenth inning tied and Notre Dame took the lead in the first inning of extras. Brooks Coetzee and Jared Miller reached base to start the inning and after a sacrifice bunt put them on second and third, Spencer Myers grounded into a fielder’s choice. Coetzee beat the throw home for an 8-7 Irish lead and what turned out to be the winning run.

W: Mitch Megias, ND (1-0)

L: Shane Muntz, WF (0-1)

Up Next

Notre Dame continues their opening season road trip with a midweek matchup against the Western Carolina Catamounts on Wednesday. They finish up the road trip with a weekend series against the Clemson Tigers March 15-17.