Notre Dame Baseball Opens Regional With a 10-0 Win Over Central Michigan

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team opened up the South Bend Regional today with a win over the Central Michigan Chippewas. The Irish offense exploded mid-game for 10 runs while John Michael Bertrand was on top of his game once again, throwing a complete game shutout.

Notre Dame 10 - Central Michigan 0

Win: John Michael Bertrand, ND

Loss: Andrew Taylor, CMU

The game started slow, with both teams going scoreless through the first three innings. In fact, it took until the bottom of the third for Notre Dame to get their first hit of the game. In the fourth inning the offense really started to get things going. Jared Miller led off the inning with a triple before scoring on a groundout from Carter Putz. Jack Brannigan then singled and Niko Kavadas hit a two run home run to take a 3-0 lead.

The scoring didn’t stop there, in the fifth inning Spencer Myers reached on a fielder’s choice before being brought around to score on a double from Ryan Cole. The bats kept moving in the sixth inning, bringing home six more runs. Jack Brannigan led off the inning with a triple before Niko Kavadas hit another home run, his second of the game. Brooks Coetzee then singled and David LaManna hit a home run to bring the score up to 8-0. After the first out of the inning, Spencer Myers singled and stole second. Ryan Cole was up next and he hit another Irish home run for two more runs, their fourth home run of the game. That was all for the scoring, but Notre Dame held a 10-0 lead which was more than enough.

John Michael Bertrand threw the complete game for Notre Dame, striking out six while allowing only five hits and one walk. He held the Chippewas scoreless and finished the game with s flourish, striking out the side in the ninth inning. The Irish defense also sparkled, with Bertrand making a pair of plays for outs coming off the mound and the infield turning two double plays to stop the rare Chippewa threat.

Up Next

Notre Dame now moves into the winner’s bracket of the South Bend Regional. They will take on the winner of the game between the Michigan Wolverines and the UCONN Huskies. Those two teams will face each other tonight while Notre Dame will play the winner tomorrow, June 5 at 6pm ET.