April 24, 2001
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The Notre Dame baseball team (35-5-1, 15-2 BIG EAST)-ranked as high as 1st in the national polls-resumes its 12-game homestand at Eck Stadium on Tuesday, April 24, with a 6:05 game vs. Bowling Green on the annual “Turn Back The Clock Night” … the Irish are riding the nation’s longest active winning streak (14) games after sweeping Villanova (7-1, 15-2, 8-3) … ND’s 13 consecutive BIG EAST Conference wins are a BIG EAST record … the Irish have won 19 of their last 20-and are batting .354 in that 20game stretch-since losing a pair of late-inning leads at Virginia Tech on March 25 … sophomore RHP Peter Ogilvie (2-0, 0.72 ERA) is expected to start for ND, in his first appearance since taking the hard-luck 4-3 loss vs. Ball State on April 3 (he missed three weeks of action due to a sore shoulder).
RADIO COVERAGE – South Bend-based WJVA radio (1580 AM) is scheduled to carry live broadcasts of Notre Dame’s entire 56-game schedule in 2001 (plus all postseason action) … a real-audio link to internet broadcasts of the games may be accessed at www.und.com while real-time stats-including updated play-by-play-likewise can be accessed at und.com
WIN STREAK HITS 11 – ND has pushed its winning streak to 14 games-the program’s longest win streak since a similar 13-game run in 1993 (april 7-21)-while becoming the quickest Irish team ever to reach the 30-win plateau (the 1990, ’94, ’99 and 2000 teams all started 30-9). … the Irish also have tied the team record for consecutive BIG EAST wins in a season (10), matching the run by the 1998 team … the longest previous winning streak of the Paul Mainieri era (since 1995) was a 13-game run from April 8-23, 1999 … ND’s longest streaks of the 1990s were an 18-game run from April 7-April 28 in 1991 (also the longest single-season win streak in ND history).
THE SERIES: Notre Dame leads the Bowling Green series 34-22-1, with the series dating back to 1960 and including games in 21 of the last 31 seasons … the Irish have won the last six games in series, with BG winning at ND in 1995 (5-4) … the series has featured 14 one-run games (BG has won eight of them) while ND’s last four wins have been by fairly close margins: 4-0 in 1997, 6-4 in ’98 (11 inn.), 14-10 in ’99 and 2-1 last season … in the 1998 game, ND’s Jeff Wagner tied the game with an opposite-field HR in the 6th before Brant Ust ended the game on a similar opposite-field shot to right field.
RECAPPING LAST SEASON’S ND-BG GAME (2-1): Matt Buchmeier tossed five shutout innings of middle relief (2 H, BB, 3 KS) in a game that lasted just two hours and seven minutes … ND left 10 men on base … a throwing error by Falcons 2B Kenny Burdine allowed the winning run to score in the 2nd inning … all of the game’s runs came in the 2nd, with Falcons DH Sean Ryan hitting a solo HR vs. J.P. Gagne … the Irish then scored twice without a hit-as Aaron Nease hit Andrew Bushey with a pitch beforwalking Matt Strickroth, hitting Ken Meyer with the next pitch and yielding a sacrifice fly from Ken Meyer (Burdine’s bobble on Steve Stanley’s groundball allowed the go-ahead run to score).
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: Notre Dame (2.52 team ERA) and Bowling Green (.358 team batting average) will treat fans to a rare matchup of the nation’s top pitching and hitting teams, with BG also ranking 4th in scoring (9.89 runs/gm) while ND is 1st in win pct. (.866) and owns the nation’s longest active winning streak (14 games) … BG has smacked 74 home runs but its balanced offense does not include any individuals among the nation’s top-50 batters while Irish freshman 2B Steve Sollmann ranks 43rd at .411 (he ranks 3rd in the nation among freshmen).
ND QUICK NOTES: ND has surged as high as No. 1 in the national rankings … Aaron Heilman (1.32, 5th in nation) and Danny Tamayo (1.60, 11th) rank as the only teammates in the NCAA’s top 12 ERA leaders … Heilman is one of two pitchers who sit atop the national winning pct. charts with 10-0 records (four pitchers have 11 wins) … ND errors have led to just 29 unearned runs in 41 games (opposing teams are averaging just 3.2 runs/9 IP vs. ND-even when including unearned runs) … the Irish earlier this season posted three consecutive shutouts for the first time since 1916 … ND has added a May 2 home makeup game with Western Michigan (5:05) while the Irish tomorrow will face Valparaiso in a 4:05 doubleheader (originally schedule for one game at 6:05) … ND is unbeaten in its last 10 extra-inning games (9-0-1)-including four extra-inning victories in 2001 … junior CF Steve Stanley just was named BIG EAST player of the week (for the second time this season), after leading ND during last week’s 4-0 week in batting avg. (.571, 8-for-14), hits, runs (9), total bases (13), slugging pct. (.929), on-base pct. (.667) and SBs (2-2), plus 3 RBI (3rd on team), a triple, 4 walks (2nd on team) and hit 1st career HR … Tamayo picked up his second BIG EAST pitcher of the week honor after picking up the win in the 15-2 Villanova game (he took a no hitter into the 7th inning before allowing a solo HR, his 8 IP included 1 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, 10 groundouts and 64 of 89 pitches for strikes) … all three of senior SS Alec Porzel’s HRs this season have come in the last 9 games … Porzel is riding a team-best 9-game hitting streak … ND has won 16 of its last 17 BIG EAST series while its 13 straight conference wins are a BIG EAST record … this marks the 4th season in ND history that the Irish have been 30 games over .500 (first time ever before May) … over the last 25 games, ND pitchers have posted shutout innings in 171 of 211 IP-or 81% of the innings) … ND’s BIG EAST record during the past three seasons is 53-14 (.791) … ND’s BIG EAST stats include a .337 team batting avg. and 2.53 ERA … the Irish are batting .354 during the current 19-1 streak … ND’s starting pitchers have combined for a 1.91 ERA in 41 games … Porzel is the first ND player ever to reach 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases dur
SO MANY STRONG STARTS – Sophomore RHP Peter Ogilvie will be looking to extend the impressive performances by ND starting pitchers in 2001, as the Irish starters have combined for a 1.91 ERA through the first 41 games … the bulk of those starts (20) have come from the lethal combination of Aaron Heilman (1.32, 5th in the nation) and Danny Tamayo (1.60, 11th) while Ogilvie (0.72) has turned in four strong midweek starts … junior RHP Matt Buchmeier (3.81) has logged five decent starts while J.P. Gagne (3.51, 2.46 as starter) has turned in solid efforts in each of his six starts and his fellow sophomore RHP Ryan Kalita (1.13) has won both his midweek starts … senior LHP Mike Naumann has gotten into the act with two solid starts of his own (2-0, 0.60, 2-0) … the other combined stats for ND starting pitchers in 2001 include a 28-2 record in 269 IP (57 earned runs), with 215 Ks, 57 walks and 182 hits allowed (for 9-inning averages of 7.2 Ks, 1.9 BBs and 6.1 hits) … ND’s overall 2.52 team ERA includes a 4.30 ERA by the bullpen-led by sophomore RHP Matt Laird (0.92, 3-0, 4 SV).ing his career.
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: The Notre Dame baseball squad posted a 3.19 team GPA in the 2000 fall semester-the program’s best semester in the seven-year tenure of head coach Paul Mainieri … 11 players turned in a Dean’s List semester (3.4 or higher) in the fall of 2000, with 21 at 3.0 or higher … Irish baseball players have earned GTE Academic All-America honors 13 times since 1982, including a pair in 2000: 2B Jeff Perconte (3.76 cumulative GPA, double major in economics and government, now attending ND Law School) and current senior LHP Mike Naumann (3.92, pre-professional science, three 4.0 semesters, already accepted into and plans to attend Baylor Medical School) … ND was one of seven Division I baseball teams with multiple Academic All-Americans in 2000 and only two of those schools-Notre Dame and North Carolina-participated in the 2000 NCAAs … four current ND players recently were nominated for 2001 Academic All-America status: Naumann, junior 3B Andrew Bushey (3.33, finance), sophomore RF Brian Stavisky (3.69, business) and sophomore RHP Matt Laird (3.59, business).
+30 – The Irish are 30 games over .500 for the fourth season in ND history (first ever prior to May) … the 1989 ND team was the first to do it, after winning five straight games to claim the MCC title and push its record to 47-17-1 (on May 20) … the 1990 Irish followed suit by swelling to a 40-10 record on May 6th (with a 14-4 win over Xavier) before topping out at 35 games over .500 in the MCC Tournament (45-10 and then 46-11) … finally, the 1992 Irish pushed their record to 43-13 with a 10-1 win over Dayton in the MCCs and surged as high as 34 games over .500 (48-14) thanks to wins in the NCAAs over Miami, Delaware and South Carolina.
ANOTHER WINNING SEASON – ND already has clinched the 78th winning season in the baseball program’s 109-year history, including 14 straight (the 1987 team went 15-29).
CUTTING THE Ks – Sophomore RF Brian Stavisky continues to made strides as an all-around offensive force, as the dangerous power hitter has struck out just 15 times in 153 plate appearances (10.2 PAs per K)-a considerable improvement from his 2000 average of 6.95 … Stavisky’s strikeout numbers are more impressive within BIG EAST play, as he has K’d just five times in 69 BIG EAST plate appearances (13.8 PAs/K) … he heads into today with just one K in the last 10 games while owning the same number of home runs (3) as Ks during ND’s current 19-1 run.
PENCIL HIM IN, OR USE PEN – Junior Steve Stanley has started all 166 games of his ND career (all in center field) while logging all but 14 innings in CF during his three seasons … in fact, during the 1999-2001 seasons, the familiar #2 has patrolled center field for the Irish in 99.0 percent of the innings (1,386 of 1,400)-including all but two out of 513.2 during his freshman season (his classmate Paul O’Toole played the final two innings in a 20-10 loss at Northwestern on April 6, 1999) … Stanley then played in CF for the final 267.2 innings of ’99 and the first 497 of his sophomore season-a span of 764.2 consecutive innings in center field-before being replaced by current senior Ben Cooke for the final five innings of the 8-1 NCAA Tournament loss at Mississippi State (the Irish fell into an early 7-0 hole and Stanley reluctantly left the game due to illness) … this season, he has patrolled center in all but six of 317.1 innings-with Mike Naumann inserted into CF for the final inning vs. Texas-Pan American (a 14-9 win) while John Heintz played the position for the final four innings vs. Hillsdale (a 9-2 win) and for the final two innings of the 15-3 win over Seton Hall … Naumann-who had plenty of OF experience as a prep-turned in a play during that brief stint vs. UTPA that Stanley would be proud of, sprinting to the warning track and crashing into the wall while holding on to a flyout off the bat of Caleb Schmidt (who homered earlier in the game) … here’s a breakdown of Stanley’s innings played in center field:
THE IRON MEN – By starting each of ND’s final 14 regular-season games, Steve Stanley would move past former teammate Brant Ust (1997-99) for second place on the ND all-time list for consecutive starts (179) … Ust’s three-year career saw him split starts at 3B, 2B and SS in ’97 before playing primarily 3B in ’98 and SS in ’99 … the Irish record for consecutive starts is held by another former SS, as Pat Pesavento started 204 consecutive games during the 1986-89 seasons (starting with the final 31 games of ’86) … based on research recently conducted by the Arkansas-Little Rock sports information office, Pesavento’s streak would rank as one of the longest in Division I history.
GAME-ENDERS NOT SO RARE – Ken Meyer’s grand slam vs. Central Michigan marked the 4th time in the last 25 games at Eck Stadium that the Irish have won on a game-ending home run … it happened last season on three successive BIG EAST weekends, vs. Pittsburgh (Alec Porzel), St. John’s (Jeff Felker) and Rutgers (Brian Stavisky).
AHHHHH, BOK! – Junior DH Matt Bok has been music to ND’s ears during recent weeks, rankin 2nd on the team with a .400 batting average during BIG EAST games … Bok, who is batting .322 overall, also has shown some gap power and hustle on the bases-with his .542 season slugging pct. trailing only Brian Stavisky’s .602 among Irish players … Bok’s three triples rank him among the BIG EAST leaders in that category, as only Joue Cuervo (Seton Hall) and UConn’s Mike Scott have more (each with four).
SCORING STREAK – By scoring vs. Navy on March 12, Notre Dame set the team record for consecutive games with at least one run scored (134), dating back to a 12-0 loss at Florida International on Feb. 21, 1999 (the streak now stands at 163 games) … ND set the previous record by scoring in the each of the first 133 games of the Paul Mainieri era (Feb. 24, 1995-March 9, 1997) and has scored in of 404 of 409 total games during the Mainieri era (98.8 percent) … the Irish have been shut out at Eck Stadium just once in 191 games during the Mainieri era (3-0 by St. John’s on May 9, 1998), with ND playing 75 consecutive home games without being shut out.
SCORING STREAK – By scoring vs. Navy on March 12, Notre Dame set the team record for consecutive games with at least one run scored (134), dating back to a 12-0 loss at Florida International on Feb. 21, 1999 (the streak now stands at 163 games) … ND set the previous record by scoring in the each of the first 133 games of the Paul Mainieri era (Feb. 24, 1995-March 9, 1997) and has scored in of 404 of 409 total games during the Mainieri era (98.8 percent) … the Irish have been shut out at Eck Stadium just once in 191 games during the Mainieri era (3-0 by St. John’s on May 9, 1998), with ND playing 75 consecutive home games without being shut out.
THE SKIPPER: Seventh-year ND head coach Paul Mainieri owns a 622-395-1 (.611) record in 18-plus college seasons, surpassing the 500-win milestone in the Feb. 27, 1999, win at New Orleans (14-11) before reaching his 600th win this season in memorable fashion on St. Patrick’s Day in the 7-6 win over Portland in the title game of the Fresno State Pepsi/Johnny Quik Classic (the Irish wore special green jerseys in that game) … in addition to his 290-116-1 (.714) mark at ND, Mainieri’s teams were 180-121 in his six seasons at St. Thomas (Fla.) and 152-158 in six seasons at Air Force … Mainieri experienced two noteworthy homecomings in ’99, making his third return to the UNO (where he played) with the Irish baseball program and his third return as the ND coach to his hometown of Miami … Mainieri coached his 800th career game on Feb. 20, 1998, at the University of Miami, after a Feb. 15 game at UNO was rained out … he notched his 499th career win in the 1999 season opener versus James Madison, in a game played in Miami at Florida International (Feb. 19) … Mainieri’s 290 wins rank third all-time at ND, behind Pat Murphy (318, ’88-’94) and Jake Kline (558, ’34-’75) … Mainieri has seen 24 of his Irish players go on to pro baseball, with 16 selected in the major-league draft and RHP Christian Parker being the first to reach the Major Leagues (he earned a spot as the New York Yankees No. 5 starter and made his debut vs. Toronto on April 6 at Yankees Stadium) … 15 of his players at St. Thomas went on to pro baseball, including three-Joe Klink, Dane Johnson and Dan Rohrmeier-who have played in the major leagues … Mainieri and his father Demie are the only known father-son combo in college baseball history to top 500 career coaching wins … Demie won 1,018 in his 30-year career at Miami-Dade North CC … Mainieri picked up his 200th win at Notre Dame in the 7-6 win over Oakland on April 30 ,1999 … he coached his 900th college game in the opener at Georgetown on May 8, 1999, and coached his 1,000th career game on March 29 versus Hillsdale College.
BUSTING OUT – Despite major early-season struggles with scoring 1st and 2nd-inning runs, the Irish stunningly now hold a 31-6 season scoring edge in the 1st inning (17-12 in the 2nd) … much of that 1st-inning domination has come in BIG EAST play, with ND pushing across 21 runs in the 1st inning of 14 league games while allowing just one … the Irish scored just three 1st-inning runs in the first 13 games of the season before plating two in the 9-5 win over Illinois … prior to the March 31 Seton Hall DH, the Irish still had managed just eight 1st-inning runs in 24 games before scoring five 1st-inning runs in the DH with the Pirates … ND’s highest-scoring 1st inning of 2001 came in a big game and helped secure momentum in the 3-game sweep at Rutgers, with ND scoring five times in the 1st inning of the second game of that series en route to a 10-2 win.
KEEP ON CRANKING – Freshman 2B Steve Sollmann .leads ND with a .411 batting avg. and is very familiar with the last Irish player to hit .400-plus, as his brother Scott hit .402 in ’94 and .405 in ’95 … Sollmann’s 1-for-5 effort vs. Central Michigan has dropped his average under .400 for the first time since March 14-when Sollmann’s 2-for-4 game at Fresno State had raised his average from .372 to .381 … the next day, he batted 3-for-4 and jumped to .412 … Sollmann’s highest season batting average (at the end of a game) was .444 on April 17, after batting 3-for-4 in the first win at Rutgers (he then batted .265, or 9-for-34, after hitting that high-water mark) … the Irish record for batting average by a freshman is .429, posted by future All-American Eric Danapilis in 1990.
NEARLY UNSINKABLE – Sophomore closer Matt Laird is riding a 12.2-inning shutout streak over nine appearances … Navy still is the only team to post earned runs versus Laird this season (2), with his ERA now at 0.92 in 15 appearances and 19.2 IP (with 19 Ks and 8 BB) … one of Laird’s outings last week was over in seven pitches, as he posted two Ks and added a 1st-pitch flyout to set up ND’s rally vs. Central Michigan in the bottom of the 9th.
BAKER’S DOZEN?: – Notre Dame is nearing the end of a 12-game homestand that originally was slated to include 13 games before the April 17 game with Purdue was cancelled … the Irish are enjoying 19 straight days without a road trip and are about to play at home on consecutive weekends for the first time all season … the first six weekends of ND’s 2001 season-and seven of the first eight-were spent on the road, traversing some 14,000 miles with destinations in seven widespread states (Mississippi, Texas, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Jersey).
BIG EAST BOOST – ND owns a .337 team batting average in BIG EAST games (.322 overall, up 23 points from 2000) and is averaging roughly one run per inning in conference games (140 in 131 inn.).
COULD IT BE BETTER? – ND has taken over the national ERA lead despite not having the services of two members of its 5-man rotation-junior RHP Matt Buchmeier (1-0, 5 GS, 3.67) and sophomore RHP Peter Ogilvie (2-1, 4 GS, 0.72)-during the past 2-3 weeks … both have been out with sore shoulders but Buchmeier returned to pitch one inning vs. Central Michigan and onther vs. Villanova (his first action since starting the second game at Virginia Tech on March 25) … Ogilvie’s last outing saw him take the hard-luck loss vs. Ball State on April 3 (he is the likely starter for Tuesday’s game vs. Bowling Green).
EXPLOSION – ND’s 15-4, 17-10 wins over Georgetown represented ND’s most combined runs (32) ever in a BIG EAST doubleheader … it also marked the first time that the Irish had reached 15 runs in consecutive games since the 1993 postseason, when ND beat Evansville 22-5 in the title game of the MCC Tournament before downing Mississippi State 15-1 in the NCAA East Regional (at Florida State).
JUNIOR JUMP – One of the hidden keys to ND’s success in 2001 has been the play of junior 3B Andrew Bushey, who has provided solid offense batting mostly in the No. 7 hole (he is 4th on the team with a .341 batting avg., plus 11 doubles, 3 triples and a .467 slugging pct.) … Bushey’s batting avg. is up 70 points from his combined avg. in 1999 and 2000 (.271) while his slugging is up 86 points (.381 first two seasons) … his 3 triples are more than the previous 2 seasons combined (2) while he hit just 8 doubles in 1999 and 10 in 2000 … his .407 BIG EAST average is tops among ND players.
THE MASK FACTOR? – Andrew Bushey’s sudden jump in batting average brings back memories of another recent Irish player-Mike Amrhein (1994-97)-who made the switch to catcher prior to making big strides at the plate (Bushey began training as classmate Paul O’Toole’s backup last fall and has made nine starts behind the plate this season) … Amrhein-who credited his experience as a catcher with improving his abilities to see the ball as a hitter and understand the strategy of opposing pitchers-was a 99th-round draft choice of the New York Yankees before returning to Notre Dame for his senior season in 1997 … after playing mostly OF and 3B in his first three seasons, Amrhein split catching duties with Jeff Wagner in ’97 and responded with a monster season that included a 21-game hitting streak … Amrhein entered that season with a .346 career batting avg. but hit nearly 50 points higher than that in ’97 (.394) while amassing 91 hits, 14 home runs, three triples, 13 doubles, 71 RBI, 33 walks and just 17 Ks (nearly matching his HR total) … Amrhein’s big final season prompted the Chicago Cubs to select him in the 10th round of the ’97 draft (only three ND seniors ever have been drafted higher) and he is in the midst of his fifth season within the Cubs organization (he was a non-roster invitee at Cubs spring training each of the past two seasons and currently is playing with the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx in the double-A Southern League).
MORE HITS, MORE Ks – Andrew Bushey nearly has matched his 2000 hit total (58, with 46 this season) but his improved batting avg. has included a surprising rise in his strikeout total, as Bushey K’d just 12 times as a sophomore but already has 17 strikeouts in 2001 (his on-base pct. has jumped from .352 in 2000 to .389 this season).