ACC Preview: #9 Florida State & #5 Virginia

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The No. 4 seed Notre Dame baseball team begins the 2022 ACC Championship on Thursday for their first day of pool play from Truist Field in Charlotte. The Irish are set to face the No. 9 seed Florida State Seminoles on Thursday at 3 p.m. ET. The matchup against the Seminoles will be available on ESPN3 in the South Bend Area and on Bally Sports Channels regionally. The Irish conclude pool play with the No. 5 seed Virginia on Friday at 11 a.m. ET. That game will be aired on Bally Sports Channels and available locally in the South Bend Area on Marquee Sports Network.

Irish Battle Cavaliers and Seminoles in Pool Play

• The Irish earned the No. 4 seed heading into the 2022 ACC Championship, the second-straight year they have earned a top-four seed.
• They lead Pool D and are joined with No. 5 Virginia and No. 9 Florida State.
• The Irish did not play the Cavaliers this season but they swept a series on the road over Florida State back in April.
• It was the first time in program history that the Irish swept a road series against a Top-5 team.
• Last season, Notre Dame was 3-1 against Virginia as they swept the Cavaliers in Charlottesville but they fell to Virginia at the 2021 ACC Championship.
• This is the sixth time the Irish have qualified for the ACC Championship and they look to advance to the semifinals for the first time in program history.
• The Irish come into the tournament with a 33-13 record and finished 16-11 in ACC play. 
• This past week, they went 2-2 after a midweek road win over Northwestern and dropped two of three games against #9 Miami in Coral Gables.
• Florida State enters the tournament with a 32-22 record and finished ACC play with a 15-15 mark.
• They went 0-4 over the final week of the season after a midweek road loss to Florida and they got swept in their weekend series by North Carolina.
• Virginia finished the season with a 38-15 record and were 17-13 in ACC play. They went 1-2 in their final week after dropping a series on the road against No. 10 Louisville.
• The Irish are 1-1 all-time against Virginia at the ACC Championship and are 0-1 against the Seminoles in the tournament.

Bertrand and Cole Earn All-ACC Honors

• The Irish had two players selected to the All-Conference teams as John Michael Bertrand was named to the first team and Ryan Cole was named to the third team.
• It is the second-straight season Bertrand has earned first team All-ACC honors.
• He is the first Irish pitcher to earn first team all-conference honors in back-to-back seasons since 1999-01 when Aaron Heilman did it in three-straight seasons back in the BIG EAST.
• Heading into the conference tournament, Bertrand leads the Irish in wins (7), innings pitched (82.1), strikeouts (86) and ERA among starters (2.68).
• He finished the regular season third in the ACC in ERA, fifth in innings pitched, sixth in wins and batting average against (.218) and seventh in strikeouts.
• His strikeout and wins total for the season are already career-best marks for Bertrand.
• Cole leads the team in steals (18) and ranks second in home runs (9) and hits (53).
• His 18 steals ranks fourth in the ACC and is already a career-best mark for him.
• Cole is the first Irish outfielder to earn all-conference honors since 2018 when Eric Gilgenbach and Matt Vierling were named to the all-conference teams. 

Irish Shut Out #9 Miami

• The Irish had another stellar pitching performance in the 5-0 win over #9 Miami to even the series on May 20.
• Austin Temple logged his longest start against an ACC opponent after pitching 6.0 innings of scoreless work and he allowed just one hit and five strikeouts.
• The one hit ties a season-best for Temple in a start. He allowed just one hit against Minnesota back in March.
• Matt Bedford, Will Mercer and Alex Rao took care of the final nine outs to secure the win for the Irish. It was the first time Miami had been shut out this season.
• At the plate, Notre Dame hit three home runs for the sixth time this season to supply the offense.
• Jack Zyska launched his ninth home run of the season in the second, Jack Brannigan hit his seventh home run in the fifth and Jack Penney launched his second home run of the season in the eighth.
• It was the third time this season the Irish have shut out an opponent and the 23rd time they have allowed three runs or less. 

Among the Nation’s Best

• Since the start of the 2020 season, the Irish have been one of the most consistent teams over the past three seasons.
• Notre Dame is 78-28, good for a .736 winning percentage over that period.
• That ranks fourth overall in the NCAA, trailing only Tennessee, Arkansas and UC Santa Barbara.

• Among ACC teams, the Irish have the best winning percentage over the past three seasons.

ACC Dominance

• Since Link Jarrett arrived in South Bend, the Irish have been the class of the conference over the past two-plus seasons.
• Notre Dame is 44-21 (.694) in ACC games since 2020, the best winning percentage of any school in the conference.
• The 44 conference wins over the last three seasons are the most by any school in the league.
• The Irish are 17-4-1 in ACC series over that time and eight of the 17 series wins have been sweeps.
• The eight ACC sweeps eclipses the seven sweeps the Irish had over the six seasons prior to Jarrett when they joined the conference in 2014.
• In 2022, the Irish went 6-3 in ACC series with four of the series wins coming via a sweep. They swept No. 17 Wolfpack in an abbreviated two-game series on the road, swept the fifth-ranked Seminoles in Tallahassee and swept Clemson and Wake Forest at home.

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