Notre Dame is a team that has been struggling to fight their way out of the ACC basement. Taking a nearly .500 record and an over-two-week losing streak into the Saturday game, they emerged with a statement upset over No. 13 Virginia.
Overall, the Cavaliers (25-11, 9-8 ACC) had a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot all afternoon — giving up numerous free bases to fuel the Fighting Irish (16-14, 7-10 ACC) offense. Five base on balls, a pair of hit batsmen, three wild pitches and four stolen bases totaled over a thousand feet of free real estate on the basepaths.
Sophomore lefty Max Stammel took up starting pitching duties for Virginia, ultimately surrendering all five runs in the game and being handed the loss. The damage came in the third and fourth innings, where walks and stolen bases provided all five runs without demanding an extra-base hit out of the Notre Dame lineup.
The Fighting Irish had just one extra-base hit all game, a double in the second inning from graduate outfielder Drew Berkland.
Junior Jack Radel, the ace of the Notre Dame staff, was the bane of the Cavalier hitters for most of the game. With a 2.82 earned run average this season, he looked to continue his elite season in an attempt to tie the series.
“Jack Radel is one of the best arms in our league, one of the best arms in the country,” Coach Chris Pollard said. “He’ll be a first or second-round [MLB] draft pick. When we spot him with a five-run lead, that’s an uphill battle.”
The Cavaliers' lineup kicked to life in the seventh. Junior infielder Sam Harris demolished a ball to center field, hit over 110 miles per hour, to score senior outfielder Harrison Didawick and himself on a home run blast. Virginia continued to press, tallying a pair of singles. Back-to-back strikeouts would strand them to end the inning.
Ending innings with men left on base was a shortcoming the Cavaliers can point to as a major reason for the loss. At the day's close, eight baserunners were stranded to end an inning.
In the eighth, Virginia came knocking for a comeback but couldn’t keep a foot in the door for long enough. Finally getting Radel out of the ballgame after seven innings of quality work, the Cavaliers looked to ambush graduate reliever Eli Thurmond. Junior infielder Eric Becker slapped a single to lead off the inning, bringing up fellow junior infielder Joe Tiroly.
Tiroly had a major league caliber at bat. After falling behind 0-2, Tiroly embarked upon a 12-pitch battle with Thurmond. Five straight pitches fought off for foul balls ultimately yielded Tiroly a walk and a relieving jog to first base.
The pair of lead off batters and plenty of pitches bounced Thurmond from the game in favor of freshman lefty Caden Crowell. Harris had no trouble with the left-on-left matchup, pushing a double to the opposite field to plate the third and final Cavalier run.
Virginia then loaded the bases, bringing the hero of game one against the Fighting Irish to the plate in sophomore outfielder Zach Jackson. Jackson pulled the go-ahead home run in the ninth inning of the series opener in a winning effort for the Cavaliers. Jackson couldn’t get it done here, striking out to leave the bases loaded.
While the offense had been fighting to get back into the contest, freshman fireballer Noah Yoder had taken the mound to keep the deficit as it was. Yoder hurled 2.2 innings, tying his season high and keeping Notre Dame scoreless throughout. He would give the ball to sophomore Henry Zatkowski for the late-inning relief appearance.
Overall, the Cavalier bullpen was lights out all afternoon, keeping the Fighting Irish scoreless in their combined 4.2 innings of work.
Virginia couldn’t muster the same offensive traffic in the ninth as in the previous two innings. The Cavaliers fell in order to finish the game with a stinging ACC loss and an even series.
Virginia looks to bounce back and take a series-clinching win in the rubber match Sunday at 1 p.m. in South Bend, Ind.
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