April 30, 1998

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame baseball team’s frustrating string of games canceled due to weather continued Thursday, as a 3:00 p.m. doubleheader with the University of Chicago was canceled at 2:30 due to rain that had lingered throughout the day. Both games had originally been scheduled as makeups for previous Notre Dame rainouts.

Thursday’s canceled games will not be made up, as the Irish are scheduled to play a three-game home BIG EAST series versus West Virginia this weekend (May 2-3) before taking the next five days off from competition for final exams. Notre Dame’s regular-season then is scheduled to conclude next weekend at home, with a series versus St. John’s (May 9-10).

The Irish have seen 16 games canceled due to rain or snow this season in seven different states, with just six of those cancellations coming at home. The other canceled or postponed games have been in New Orleans, La. (2/15), San Antonio, Texas (3, 3/12-14), Providence, R.I. (2, 3/21), Storrs, Conn. (2, 3/22), Pittsburgh, Pa. (4/19) and South Orange, N.J. (1, 4/27).

Notre Dame will play a maximum of only 53 regular-season games this season, three below the NCAA limit of 56.

BIG EAST NOTES: Six BIG EAST teams were in action on April 29, in makeup games vs. their travel partners … 2nd-place Rutgers posted a 14-4 home win over 6th-place Seton Hall, 7th-place Connecticut won 5-4 at 3rd-place St. John’s and 10th-place Pittsburgh won 5-3 at 4th-place West Virginia … this weekend’s three-game series involving teams in contention for the six-team BIG EAST Tournament (May 13-16 in Norwich, Conn.) include: WVU at Notre Dame, UConn at Boston College, Georgetown at Rutgers, Providence at St. John’s and Seton Hall at Pittsburgh … next weekend’s action includes St. John’s at Notre Dame and Villanova at WVU … 1st-place Notre Dame currently is guaranteed a top-five finish, with a “magic number” of 1 vs. PC, 3 vs. WVU, 4 vs. St. John’s and 5 vs. Rutgers … Rutgers also has clinched a tournament bid while St. John’s and PC both have a magic number of 1 (vs. UConn) to clinch a BIG EAST Tournament bid, SHU has a magic number of 2 and WVU a magic number of 3 (both vs. UConn).

BIG EAST STANDINGS:1.  Notre Dame      12-1        .923        35-12       vs. WVU (3), vs. St. John's (3)2.  Rutgers         14-3        .824        24-13       vs. Georgetown (3)3.  St. John's      11-4        .733        23-12-1     vs. Providence (3), at Notre Dame (3)   4.  West Virginia   10-6        .625        33-12-1     at Notre Dame (3), vs. Villanova (3)5.  Providence      12-7-1      .625        27-18-1     at St. John's (3)6.  Seton Hall      11-8        .579        23-18       at Pittsburgh (3)7.  Connecticut     10-10       .500        21-16       at Boston College (3)8.  Villanova       5-13        .278        25-18-1     bye, vs. West Virginia (3)  9.  Georgetown      5-16        .238        22-30       at Rutgers (3)10. Pittsburgh      3-14        3-14        9-22-1      Seton Hall (3), at Boston College (3)11. Boston College  2-13-1      2-13-1      15-21-1     UConn (3), Pittsburgh (3)