April 18, 2006

Full-Color Weekday Game Program in PDF Format
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Notre Dame continues its 12-game homestand with a pair of 5:05 midweek games versus Toledo (Tuesday, April 18) and IPFW (Wednesday, April 19) … the ND-IPFW game will be telecast by Comcast Local live in Michigan, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Muncie and South Bend (on Comcast channel 3) – in addition to being aired by Comcast Sports Net Chicago on a delayed basis on April 20 at 7:00 p.m. EDT. Notre Dame is riding a 17-game win streak that is one shy of matching the 18 straight wins posted by the 1991 Irish team. Current Toledo head coach and former ND assistant Cory Mee was a junior utility infielder on that 1991 team, playing alongside the likes of future big-leaguers Craig Counsell and Chris Michalak (another former ND infielder, J.J. Brock, is an assistant coach on Mee’s staff at Toledo).

**See PDF for complete full-color game program**

College Baseball at The Eck – Toledo Rockets (16-15) and IPFW Mastodons (14-16) vs. #16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (27-8) … Tuesday & Wednesday … April 18 and 19, 2006 … Frank Eck Stadium (Notre Dame, Indiana)

Tale of the Tape
2005 Final Records – TOL 15-39 … IPFW 38-24-1 … ND 24-25
Lettermen Ret./Lost – TOL 21/6 … IPFW 21/7 … ND 14/8

CURRENT STATS (prior to April 18 games)
Batting Average – TOL .279 … IPFW .321 … ND .297
Runs Per 9 Innings – TOL 5.4 … IPFW 7.3 … ND 8.0
Home Runs – TOL 14 … IPFW 19 … ND 9
Slugging Percentage – TOL .368 … IPFW .437 … ND .368
Batters’ BB+HBP-K Margin – TOL -70 … IPFW +35 … ND +6
On-Base Percentage – TOL .337 … IPFW .413 … ND .398
Stolen Bases-Attempts – TOL 31-45 … IPFW 46-72 … ND 48-64
Stolen Base Percentage – TOL .689 … IPFW .639 … ND .750
Team ERA – TOL 4.58 … IPFW 3.25 … ND 6.32
Opponent Batting Average – TOL .290 … IPFW .244 … ND .322
Pitchers’ K-BB Ratio – TOL 1.1 … IPFW 2.7 … ND 1.0
Pitchers’ Ks Per 9 Innings – TOL 4.6 … IPFW 8.0 … ND 3.9
Pitchers’ BB Per 9 Innings – TOL 4.3 … IPFW 3.0 … ND 3.7
Fielding Pct. (Errors) – TOL .954 (56) … IPFW .972 (38) … ND .953 (50)
Double Plays Turned – TOL 32 … IPFW 29 … ND 22
Record at Home – TOL 6-3 … IPFW 13-1 … ND 6-2
Record on Road (incl. neutral) – TOL 10-12 … IPFW 14-7 … ND 8-14
Record in One-Run Games – TOL 5-2 … IPFW 3-2 … ND 2-3
Record in Extra Innings – TOL 1-0 … IPFW 0-2 … ND 2-1

ND Sports Hotline – (574) 631-3000

Probable Pitching Matchups
vs. Toledo: TOL – Mike Ellis (So., RHP), 5.02 ERA, 0-0 record, 14.1 IP, 5 GP/1 GS, 6 Ks, 9 BB, 22 H/.367 opp. avg.) … ND – Wade Korpi (So., LHP) 2.19, 3-1, 37 IP, 7 GP/6 GS, 52 Ks, 12 BB, 29 H (.219 opp. avg.)

vs. IPFW: IPFW – Eric Lambert (Sr., LHP), 5.85, 3-4, 40 IP, 9 GP/8 GS, 14 Ks, 13 BB, 55 H (.331 opp. avg.) … ND – David Gruener (So., LHP) 3.29, 1-0, 13.2 IP, 9 GP/2 GS, 12 Ks, 7 BB, 11 H (.216 opp. avg.)

IRISH NOTES – ND owns the nation’s longest active win streak (17), one shy of matching the longest of the entire 2006 season (Mississippi State and Old Dominion earlier won 18 straight) … the win streak equals the longest of the Paul Mainieri era (also ’03) and trails only an 18-game streak in ’91 during the 114-year history of ND baseball, among longest single-season streaks (the 1907 and ’08 ND teams combined to win 21 straight) … the Irish have won 11 straight BIG EAST games, tying the ’89 Seton Hall and ’98 ND squads for 2nd-longest conference win streak in 22 seasons of BIG EAST baseball (ND’s ’01 team won 18 straight) … ND’s 11-1 start is its 3rd-best in 11 BIG EAST seasons (14-1 in ’98 ,12-1 in ’99) … Alex Nettey’s 2-run blast vs. St. John’s (9-7) was ND’s 12th game-ending home run in the Mainieri era (first at Eck Stadium since ’01) … Greg Lopez is 3rd on the team in batting (.354; team-best .438 with runners in scoring position) and has a 5-to-1 ratio of RBI (team-best 30) to errors (6), 3rd-best among shortstops from teams in the Baseball America top-20 … ND has faced only two deficits longer than 1.5 innings in the win streak … the Irish are outhitting opponents .353-.252 in the win streak (2.65 staff ERA, .975 fielding pct./17 Es) … ND is 18-1 in its past 19 overall games vs. BIG EAST teams … ND set an Eck Stadium record for tickets sold (3,053 and then 3,101) on both days of the SJU series … Craig Cooper’s 16-game hit streak is 3rd-longest in the Mainieri era (he has reached base 21-of-26 times when leading off a game for the ND offense) … the Irish are 13-1 at home and riding a 26-3 extended streak over the past six weeks … ND had totaled just 11 HRs in its first 30 games but had 8 HRs in five games last week … ND is the only team with four pitchers among the BIG EAST’s top-20 ERA leaders: Jeff Manship (2nd, 2.04), Wade Korpi (4th, 2.19), Tom Thornton (16th, 3.78) and Jeff Samardzija (18th, 3.83) … Korpi also ranks 6th in low opp. batting avg. (.216) … David Gruener, Brett Graffy, David Phelps, Sam Elam and Mike Dury combined for the 3-hit shutout of Valparaiso (12-0; 9 Ks, 3 BB) while Korpi went the distance in the 3-hitter vs. Western Michigan (2-0; career-best 11 Ks), ND’s first back-to-back shutouts since ’02 … the Irish staff has allowed just 4 home runs all season and recently went 25 games (943 batters faced) without allowing a HR .. ND rapped out 49 hits in its sweep at USF, the most hits for the Irish in a BIG EAST series since 50 vs. Georgetown in ’98 … Kyle Weiland already has tied Aaron Heilman’s ND record for saves by a freshman (9) … ND’s 35 games this season have featured 33 different batting orders … the ND defense remains on pace to set the team record in fielding pct. (.972; 38 Es) … Paul Mainieri is 515-204-2 at ND, 846-483-3 overall in 24 seasons … Cooper and Brett Lilley both hit 9-for-13 in the sweep at USF … this weekend’s rotation vs. Rutgers: Samardzija (Fri.), Manship (Sat.) and Thornton (Sun.).