Notre Dame Baseball: Irish Lose Series to North Carolina, Beat Northwestern

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team played another full schedule this week. They began by welcoming the North Carolina Tar Heels to South Bend with a weekend series. The Irish lost the first game of the series and split the following two in a doubleheader.

Following that series, Notre Dame stayed at home for a midweek game against the Northwestern Wildcats. The Notre Dame pitching was able to control the game and they came away with a win, finishing the week with a 2-2 record.

Game 1: Notre Dame 1 (12-20, 7-9) - North Carolina 10 (26-9, 9-7)

North Carolina jumped out to an early lead in the first game. After several hits, including a home run by Aaron Sabato, the Tar Heels took a 4-0 lead with nobody out. Cameron Brown retired the next three to end the inning but the damage was already done.

Notre Dame got one back in the bottom half of the inning when Jack Zyska launched a solo home run, the first of his career. That was all Notre Dame would get though.

North Carolina added four more runs in the second inning and two more in the fourth. By that time the game was out of reach and ended in a 10-1 score.

W: Tyler Baum, UNC (7-2)

L: Cameron Brown, ND (1-5)

Game 2: Notre Dame 6 (12-21, 7-10) - North Carolina 13 (27-9, 10-7)

North Carolina started the game off right away again, scoring 6 runs total in the first two innings.

Notre Dmae began to fight back in the third inning. The Irish strung together same base runners and were able to come up with a four run inning, capped by a home run by Daniel Jung.

North Carolina went back to work on offense after that though, scoring five more runs over the next three innings for an 11-5 advantage. The Tarheels held on for the 13-6 win.

W: Austin Bergner, UNC (4-0)

L: Tommy Sheehan, ND (5-3)

Game 3: Notre Dame 4 (13-21, 8-10) - North Carolina 3 (27-10, 10-8)

The third game of the series was a little slower to start than the first two. North Carolina opened the scoring again, but this time with one run in the fourth inning. Notre Dame answered right back in the bottom half when Niko Kavadas scored on a single from Eric Gilgenbach.

North Carolina regained the lead in the sixth inning with a solo home run from Michael Busch. Notre Dame took their first lead of the series in the seventh inning, when a sacrifice bunt and wild pitch brought home two runs.

In the ninth inning, North Carolina tied the game at 3 on an RBI single from Ethan Roberts. Notre Dame wasn’t done though. In the bottom half of the inning the Irish loaded the bases before Zack Prajzner brought home the winning run with a walk-off single.

W: Joe Boyle, ND (2-2)

L: Austin Love, UNC (5-3)

Game 4: Notre Dame 6 (14-21) - Northwestern 2 (16-17)

Northwestern opened up an early 1-0 in the first inning when Alex Erro hit a solo home run. Notre Dame tied things up in the bottom half of the inning when Daniel Jung hit into a fielder’s choice.

Notre Dame kept the offense coming in the second inning with two more runs. Jake Singer singled and stole second, and after a walk to Niko Kavadas loaded the bases, Jack Zyska drove home two runs with a single to left field.

In the third inning, Notre Dame added another when Carter Putz tripled and scored on a sacrifice bunt by Jared Miller. Northwestern then added another run in the sixth to bring the score to 4-2.

In the eighth inning Notre Dame was able to add some insurance runs to pad the lead. With runners on the corners, Jack Zyska tripled to drive in two for a 6-2 lead. Andrew Belcik held the Wildcats scoreless in the ninth for the save and the Irish win.

W: Tommy Vail, ND (2-1)

L: Parker Hanks, NU (3-2)

S: Andrew Belcik, ND (1)

Up Next

The Irish take to the road for an ACC series against the Pittsburgh Panthers. Following their trip to Pittsburgh, Notre Dame returns home for a weekday game against the Valparaiso Crusaders.