Notre Dame Baseball Sweeps Clemson, Wins Eighth Straight Game

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team entered the weekend with five straight wins and looking to extend that streak in what is their first full home series of the season, after the only previous series was shortened to one game due to weather. Notre Dame welcomed the Clemson Tigers for a three game ACC series and came away with all three wins for their second straight series sweep. The Irish outscored the Tigers 21-5 in the series and never trailed.

Game 1: Notre Dame 4 (18-5, 6-4) - Clemson 1 (19-10, 2-7)

Win: John Michael Bertrand, ND (5-0)

Loss: Mack Anglin, CU (4-3)

Save: Ryan McLinskey, ND (3)

Notre Dame got the scoring started in the second inning, stringing together four hits and bringing home two runs. Spencer Myers brought the first run home with a bunt to score Brooks Coetzee. Jack Brannigan then singled home David LaManna for the lead. Clemson opened their own scoring in the fourth inning, bringing home their only run on a dropped third strike.

In the fifth inning Brannigan drove in his second run with a double off the wall to extend the Irish lead. In the eighth inning Notre Dame added one more when Carter Putz scored on a sacrifice fly from Nick Juaire. John Michael Bertrand started the game for Notre Dame and threw a gem, pitching into the ninth inning with eight strikeouts while allowing only four hits and one unearned run. Ryan McLinskey finished the ninth inning without allowing a baserunner to close out the win.

Game 2: Notre Dame 8 (19-5, 7-4) - Clemson 1 (19-11, 2-9)

Win: Austin Temple, ND (3-0)

Loss: Nick Hoffman, CU (3-4)

Notre Dame opened the scoring again in the second inning with a solo home run from Nick Juaire. They added to the lead in the third when Carter Putz singled to score Danny Neri and Spencer Myers. The Irish extended their lead in the sixth inning with another solo home run, this one from Brooks Coetzee.

The game was broken open in the seventh inning, when Carter Putz came up with two runners on base and hit the third Irish home run of the game, making it 7-0. Danny Neri hit his first career home run in the eighth inning to finish the Irish scoring for the game. It was the fourth Irish home run of the game. Clemson managed a run in the ninth inning but it was all they would score. Austin Temple started the game for Notre Dame, throwing 5.1 innings and striking out nine Tigers.

Game 3: Notre Dame 9 (20-5, 8-4) - Clemson 3 (19-12, 2-9)

Win: Roman Kimball, ND (3-0)

Loss: Geoffrey Gilbert, CU (1-1)

Save: Alex Rao, ND (1)

In game three Notre Dame got the early lead again, but this time they didn’t wait until the second inning. Carter Putz singled home Jared Miller in the bottom of the first for the 1-0 lead. That held until the fourth inning when Clemson scored to tie the game. Notre Dame wasted no time taking the lead back though, scoring four runs in the bottom half of the inning. Brooks Coetzee doubled to open the inning and Jack Zyska followed with a double of his own to score Coetzee. Jack Brannigan hit into a fielder’s choice to score Zyska and later in the inning Carter Putz came up with two runners on base and hit a double to score both.

Spencer Myers extended the lead in the fifth inning with a sacrifice fly that scored Danny Neri. Clemson followed that with their biggest inning of the series, bringing home three runs in the sixth. In the seventh inning Spencer Myers singled to drive in another run and in the eighth inning Jared Miller and Ryan Cole both hit solo home runs for the Irish to reach the final scoreline of 9-3.

Up Next

Notre Dame plays their next game at home, a midweek game against the Michigan Wolverines. After that they travel to Durham, NC for a weekend series against the Duke Blue Devils.