May 5, 2006

Complete Full-Color Game Program in PDF Format
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BIG EAST Baseball at The Eck – Louisville Cardinals (19-27, 9-9) vs. #8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (36-9-1, 16-1-1) … Friday-Sunday, May 5-7, 2006 … Frank Eck Stadium (Notre Dame, Ind.)

Tale of the Tape
2005 Final Records – ND 38-24-1 … LOU 33-24
Lettermen Ret./Lost – ND 21/7 … LOU 22/9

CURRENT STATISTICS
Batting Average – ND .325 … LOU .283
BIG EAST Batting Average – ND .352 … LOU .290
Runs Per 9 Innings – ND 7.5 … LOU 5.5
Home Runs – ND 26 … LOU 19
Slugging Percentage – ND .443 … LOU .385
Batters’ BB+HBP-K Margin – ND +65 … LOU -12
On-Base Percentage – ND .418 … LOU .379
Stolen Bases – ND 55-87 … LOU 24-41
Stolen Base Percentagev – ND .632 … LOU .585
Team ERA – ND 3.28 … LOU 4.80
BIG EAST ERA – ND 3.76 … LOU 4.20
Opponent Batting Average – ND .240 … LOU .369
Pitchers’ K-BB Ratio – ND 2.9 … LOU 1.7
Pitchers’ Ks Per 9 Innings – ND 8.0 … LOU 6.4
Pitchers’ BB Per 9 Innings – ND 2.8 … LOU 3.7
Fielding Pct. (Errors) – ND .970 (54) … LOU .972 (51)
Double Plays Turned – ND 36 … LOU 55
Record at Home – ND 20-2 … LOU 14-12
Record on Road (incl. neutral) – ND 16-7-1 … LOU 5-15
Record in One-Run Games – ND 6-2 … LOU 3-7
Record in Extra Innings – ND 1-2-1 … LOU 2-2

Probable Pitching Matchups

Friday (Game 1): LOU – Jake Smith (So., LHP) 5.62, 1-2, 24 Ks, 23 BB, 35 H/.250, 11 GP/8 GS, 40 IP … ND – Jeff Manship (Jr., RHP) 2.42 , 6-1 , 77 Ks, 17 BB, 50 H/.202, 10 GS, 67.0 IP

Saturday (Game 2): LOU – Brian Halford (Sr., RHP) 5.40, 3-3, 51 Ks, 16 BB, 80 H/.285, 13 GP/12 GS, 76.2 IP … ND – Jeff Samardzija (Jr., RHP) 4.06, 6-1, 37 Ks, 29 BB, 66 H/.276, 10 GS, 64.1 IP

Sunday (Game 3) – LOU – B.J. Rosenberg (Jr., RHP) 4.34, 5-5, 46 Ks, 22 BB, 80 H/.285, 13 GP/12 GS, 76.2 IP … ND – Tom Thornton (Sr., LHP) 4.22, 5-1, 43 Ks, 4 BB, 58 H/.283, 10 GP/9 GS, 53.1 IP

THE BIG EAST RACE – Notre Dame is the only team to clinch a spot in the 8-team BIG EAST Tournament (May 23-27, in Clearwater, Fla.) … the Irish are close to clinching the regular-season title but can’t clinch this week due to UConn having a BIG EAST bye week … standings are based on win pct. (and not the traditional “games back,” due to rainouts that are not made up) – meaning that ND could go 20-6-1 and UConn 19-5-1 and the Huskies would be regular-season champs.

SERIES NOTES – ND and Louisville have met just twice previously in baseball: a 13-4 ND win in 1922 and a 3-2 win by the Irish in ’92 (both at UL) … the ND-UL game at the 2004 USC Classic was rained out … former UL All-America OF Mark Jurich – who played on the 2002 U.S. National Team alongside former ND pitcher Grant Johnson – is the son of UL’s AD Tom Jurich … three players in the Paul Mainieri era at ND (since ’95) have been Kentucky natives, including RHP Craig Allen (Franklin-Simpson HS) and two Louisville high school products: 1B Craig DeSensi (Trinity HS) and C/DH Jeff Wagner (St. Xavier HS; ND-record 49 career HRs), now the V.P. with the Louisville-based Wagner Companies.

ND TEAM NOTES – The Irish have lost just once in the past 28 games (26-1-1) … since the start of the current decade (2000-06), ND owns the 3rd-best win pct. among nearly 300 D-I teams (.737; 315-112), trailing once Rice (.748; 330-111-0) and Florida State (.745; 348-119-1) … ND, FSU and Wichita State currently are the only teams to post 35-plus wins every season since 1989 (the ’89-’04 ND teams all won 40-plus), with Georgia Tech (33-12), Clemson (33-13) and LSU (29-17) the only others that could join that group with 35-plus wins every year since ’89 … ND and Nebraska remain the only teams in the nation ranked among the top-30 for batting avg. (ND 22nd at .322, now .325), staff ERA (14th at 3.33, now 3.25) and fielding pct. (28th at .971, now .970) … the Irish also rank 6th in the nation for win pct. (now .794) … ND has totaled 62 runs in the past six games at Eck Stadium and is 20-2 at home this season (35-3-1 in the past 39 games at “The Eck”) … ND has totaled 13 “big innings” (5-plus runs) this season (4 in the 4th inning) … the Irish own a 57-11 overall scoring edge in the 4th inning … ND has totaled 30 games with double-digit hits … ND saw several streaks end last week: Craig Cooper’s 21-game hit streak (tied ND record) ended vs. Purdue; the team’s 23-game win streak (ND record) was halted by Bowling Green and also ended an 18-game home win streak; and the team’s 16-game BIG EAST win streak (two shy of the BIG EAST record) ended in the 1-1 tie with UConn … the Irish still could set a BIG EAST record for unbeaten streak (19) by winning the first two games vs. Louisville (ND’s ’01 team had a 18-0 stretch in BIG EAST play) … the 23-game win streak was one of the longest in ND athletics history, ranking alongside streaks by the softball (33), women’s soccer (24), football (23), women’s basketball (23) and men’s basketball (22) teams … the two wins at UConn gave ND its best-ever BIG EAST start (16-1; the ’98 team started 14-1) … since the start of the win streak on March 25, ND has erased 19 of 20 deficits it has faced … ND is 23-1-1 in its past 25 games vs. BIG EAST teams … the six largest attendance numbers in Eck Stadium history have come this season (record 3,507 for opener vs. Rutgers) … ND had totaled just 11 HRs in its first 30 games but has 16 HRs in the past 16 games … the current 3.28 staff ERA and .325 team batting avg. both would rank 2nd-best at ND in the Paul Mainieri era (the .970 fielding pct. would tie the ND record) … 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) … the Irish reached 30 wins (30-8) quicker than all but the ’04 (30-5) and ’01 (30-5-1) Irish teams … ND’s 10 regular position players are a veteran group, combining for more than 1,209 career starts … the Irish staff has allowed just 8 HRs all season and recently went 25 games (943 batters faced) without allowing a HR … ND owns a 50-24 scoring edge in the 1st inning this season … ND rapped out 49 hits in the sweeps of USF and Rutgers, the most hits for the Irish in a BIG EAST series since 50 vs. Georgetown in ’98 … ND’s 46 games this season have featured 38 different batting orders.

ND PLAYER NOTES – Craig Cooper entered the week ranked 18th in the nation for batting avg. (.420, now .428), 2nd in runs/gm (1.41, now 57 total), 46th in slugging (.682, now .692) and 36th in “toughest to strike out” (15.7 ABs per K; now 15.9) … Greg Lopez is 32nd on the toughest-to-K list (16.2, now 16.6) … Danny Dressman ranks 21st nationally in sac. bunts (11) and Lilley is 26th (10), with Alex Nettey 6th in HBPs (20) … two ND pitchers rank among the national ERA leaders: Wade Korpi (11th; 1.53) and Jeff Manship (68th; 2.42), with Korpi 20th in Ks per 9 IP (11.3) and Manship 36th (10.3 Ks) … Kyle Weiland’s 12 saves (one shy of J.P. Gagne’s ND record) stand 6th in the nation (2nd among closers from top-25 teams) … Matt Bransfield (10) and Jeremy Barnes (8) are riding noteworthy hit streaks … Cody Rizzo’s 79 career HBPs remain 3rd in NCAA history, three shy of 2nd place and 13 back of the record … Lopez has an impressive combination for a shortstop, with a high RBI total (team-best 34) and low errors (7) … Lopez entered the week with a 4.9 ratio of RBI to errors (only one SS from a team in the top-25 had a better ratio) … Wade Korpi last week had two strong 7-inning starts (vs. Purdue and UConn; 16 Ks, 3 BB, 7 H) en route to taking over the BIG EAST overall ERA lead (1.53) … Mainieri is 524-205-3 at ND, 855-484-4 overall (24 yrs) … Jeff Samardzija (40th) and Manship (41st) recently were upgraded to top-50 status on Baseball America’s list of top college prospects for the ’06 MLB draft (UNC and Missouri are the only other teams with two starting pitchers among the top-50) … Dressman (.417), Lopez (.414), Jeremy Barnes (.362) and Rizzo (.356) are ND’s top batters with runners in scoring position. … Note: see Sat./Sun. stat sheets for updated BIG EAST standings (also look for Sunday feature story on the senior class).

** See full-color PDF for team stats, updated BIG EAST standings and schedule, BIG EAST stat leaders, action photos, ND headshot sheet and more.