Growing up, Little League and NCAA baseball played big roles in my life. I spent more hours of my life than I can even estimate baking in rickety southeast Louisiana dugouts, manning the 2nd base and shortstop positions and inhaling hot dogs and nachos at park concession stands. It was my real introduction to youth sports, team sports more and solidified my lifelong love affair with sports in general.

As some one who’s 5’5, with eyesight that started to deteriorate early (fortunately it never got too bad but I still can’t make out a face more than 5 feet in front of me), I knew that a career on the baseball diamond wasn’t likely to be in the cards for me. Especially given that kids in Louisiana were already starting to throw in the 80s by ages 12-13, the batting box and 2nd base rapidly starting to be more precarious places for me.

But even as my short career started to wind down I spent a lot of time after our games watching the high schoolers play and watching the College World Series on TV. I always followed Notre Dame baseball when I was on campus but always hated that the horrid weather conditions and timing of games made it hard to spend as much time as I would’ve liked catching games live. But I’m excited about being able to rekindle things a bit by tracking data for the Irish on OFD, especially given their solid run in Omaha last season.

So here we go with a breakdown of the Irish’s opening series against the Lipscomb Bisons (Atlantic Sun).

Scoring Overview

The Irish baseball team lost their season opening series against Lipscomb 2-1 games. They fell to the Bisons in a close Game 1 and Game 3, 5-4 and 4-2 run margins. Notre Dame pulled out the biggest win of the series in Game 2, beating Lipscomb by a 8-4 run margin.

Notre Dame’s hottest hitting streaks came in the second halves of their games, with the 7-run streak in Game 2’s 7^th inning being the hottest.

Batting Summary

Even though they fell at the game level, at the series level the Irish outscored the Bisons 52% (14) to 48% (13). This overall scoring advantage came largely by the way of Notre Dame’s big Game 2 win.

Lipscomb edged out Notre Dame in overall hits, 60% (15) to 40% (10). This was also the case for RBIs with Lipscomb accounting for 55% (11) of the series total RBIs.

Game Level Comparisons

At Bats

Hits

RBIs

Runs

Notre Dame Pitching

At a high-level, the series produced a mixed bag for the Irish squad. They accounted for the bulk, 52% (14) of the series overall walks but also the majority, 53% (35) of the series overall strikeouts.

Notre Dame Pitching Details – Game 1

Notre Dame Pitching Details – Game 2

Notre Dame Pitching Details – Game 3

Notre Dame Batter Details – Through Series 1 (Lipscomb)

Games Played

At Bats

Batting Average

On Base %

Cheers and Go Irish!