March 17, 2011
| Notre Dame vs. Iowa Thursday, March 17, 4:00 p.m. CT Wolff Stadium | San Antonio, Texas |
| Notre Dame Updated Stats | Iowa Updated Stats Listen Live | |
THE IRISH ON ST. PATRICK’S DAY (March 17) — This is the sixth time in the last seven seasons that the Irish have played on St. Patrick’s Day.
- The Irish have a six-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1) on St. Patrick’s Day contests and eight of their last 10 (8-1-1).
Note: This assumes St. Patrick’s Day as being on March 17 and does not take into account years like this where the Pope moved it to avoid Holy Week.
IRISH STORYLINES — Notre Dame’s starting pitchers amassed 10 quality starts (at least six innings and three earned runs or less) over the course of the entire 2010 season (54 games). The Irish weekend rotation of senior RHP Brian Dupra, senior RHP Cole Johnson and senior RHP Todd Miller has already surpassed that total in 2011. Notre Dame got a quality start in each of its first nine games this season and the trio each posted another this past weekend at the Caravelle Resort Classic in Conway, S.C. The Irish have registered 12 over their first 14 games.
- Dupra, Johnson and Miller have been superb all year, but were almost unhittable last weekend. The trio posted a 2-1 record with a 1.14 ERA in 23.2 innings of work. Dupra and Miller each tossed 8.0 scoreless innings respectively. UAB, No. 24 Coastal Carolina and Kent State only batted .183 against the three senior right-handed hurlers.
- Notre Dame played four consecutive doubleheaders over the last three weeks. The Irish had not played in four straight twin bills since the 1994 season.
- Notre Dame leads the all-time series with Iowa, 40-25-1. The Irish knocked off the Hawkeyes in their last meeting, 14-13, in 10 innings at the Winning Inning Clearwater Classic. Notre Dame and Iowa have played four times, all during the 2006 season, in San Antonio in Wolff Stadium. The Irish took three of those four meetings.
- Iowa (5-8) enters the weekend with three losses in its last four games. The Hawkeyes played in the Texas Tech Invitational last weekend. Iowa lost twice to the host Red Raiders and split a pair of games against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.