Notre Dame Baseball Swept by Louisville

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team welcomed the #7 Louisville Cardinals to South Bend over the weekend for their final home ACC series of the season. While the Notre Dame pitching held the Cardinals offense mostly in check, the Irish offense struggled all weekend and the Cardinals managed to win all three games and leave town with a sweep.

Game 1: Notre Dame 0 (19-24, 12-13) - Louisville 2 (37-9, 16-6)

The first game of the series was a pitcher’s duel throughout. Louisville scored their first run of the game in the second inning, when Zach Britton beat out a ground ball with a runner on third. Britton was originally ruled out, which would have ended the inning, before a review overturned the call.

Louisville added another run in the fifth inning with a two out RBI single. Tommy Sheehan held the damage there though. The Irish bullpen completed 3.2 no hit innings to close out the game. The offense threatened several times, including the eighth and ninth innings, but couldn’t push a run across.

W: Reid Detmers, UL (9-2)

L: Tommy Sheehan, ND (5-5)

S: Michael McAvene, UL (5)

Game 2: Notre Dame 1 (19-25, 12-14) - Louisville 3 (38-9, 17-6)

Notre Dame managed score first in the second game after getting their first hit of the game in the fourth inning. Niko Kavadas doubled down the right field line and later came around to score on a Daniel Jung single for the 1-0 lead.

Louisville was held scoreless until the eighth inning. After two walks put runners on base, Alex Binelas homered to give the Cardinals a 3-1 lead. Cameron Junker threw seven scoreless innings for the Irish, but the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead and the one run was all the offense could manage.

W: Bobby Miller, UL (4-0)

L: Tommy Vail, ND (2-2)

S: Michael McAvene, UL (6)

Game 3: Notre Dame 2 (19-26, 12-15) - Louisville 8 (39-9, 18-6)

Louisville started things off early in the final game of the series, scoring a run in each of the first three innings. Notre Dame opened up their own scoring in the bottom of the third. After Niko Kavadas walked, Daniel Jung homered to right to bring the Irish within one.

Louisville responded in the fourth by sending eight batters to the plate and scoring four runs to put the game out of reach. They added one more run in the fifth for the 8-2 win.

W: Glenn Albanese, UL (1-0)

L: Cameron Brown, ND (3-6)

Up Next

Notre Dame welcomes the Canisius Golden Griffins to South Bend this weekend for three games, their final home series of the season.