April 28, 2006

Complete Release in PDF Format
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** Note: see PDF for complete pre-series notes (including chart data) **

2006 NOTRE DAME BASEBALL – (at Connecticut … April 29-30 … Eck Stadium)

ANOTHER SHOWDOWN SERIES – The Notre Dame baseball team (33-9, 14-1 BIG EAST) already has played four key BIG EAST series this season (sweeping each, vs. Pittsburgh, USF, St. John’s and Rutges) and another arrives this weekend as the Irish take their 1st-place record on the road to face 2nd-place Connecticut (28-13, 13-3) … the teams will play a doubleheader on Sat., April 29 (starting at noon, both game 9-innings) and then a single game on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. … ND’s rotation (in order) will include Jeff Samardzija, Jeff Manship and Wade Korpi while UConn will counter with Tim Norton, Rich Sirois and Nick Tucci – for a blockbuser showdown that features six of the top-rated pitchers in the BIG EAST (Korpi, Manship and the three UConn starters comprise the league’s top-5 overall ERA leaders while Samardzija is 16th in overall ERA and tied for 1st with five BIG EAST wins) … ND’s 12-game homestand ended with an 11-8 loss to Bowling Green that halted the team-record win streak at 23 games (longest in D-I this season and one of the longest in ND athletics history) … hot-hitting senior 1B Craig Cooper earned national player-of-the-week honors after batting 10-for-19 with 13 RBI and 4 home runs in five wins last week (his 21-game hit streak tied the ND record but ended with an 0-for-4 game vs. Purdue).

AROUND THE HORN

• SILVER STREAK – The 23-game win streak bested the ’91 team (18) for longest (single-season) and topped the 1906-07 teams (21) for best overall win streak at any time in ND history (also was the longest in D-I this season) … ND owned a .353-.227 batting edge in the streak (2.81 ERA, .972 fielding/24 Es).

• THREE-PRONGED ATTACK – ND entered the week ranked 15th nationally in batting avg. (.329, now .327), 15th in ERA (3.33, now 3.39) and 17th in fielding pct. (.972, now .971), with Nebraska the only other team in top-20 for all three.

• WILY VETERANS – ND’s 10 regular position players include 5 seniors, 2 juniors, 2 sophomore and freshman Jeremy Barnes, with that group combining to start 1,193 career games (4,431 ABs; 1,344 hits; 805 RBI; .303 bat. avg.).

• HOME BOYS – The Irish lost their home opener on March 21 but have lost just once more at Eck Stadium in the past five weeks (19-2), batting .339 (16 HRs) with a 3.55 staff ERA (just 4 HR allowed) in the 21 home games.

• LOTS-O-LINEUPS – ND’s first 42 games have featured 36 different batting orders, including 32 different orders in the first 32 games.

• IN THE CLUTCH – The Irish are batting .345 with runners in scor. pos. (.309 in ’05), led by Lopez (.426), Dressman (.420) and Rizzo (.364).

• QUICK STARTERS – ND owns a +26 scoring margin in the 1st inning this season (48-22), outhitting the opponents .370-.305 in the opening frame.

• BIG INNINGS – Notre Dame totaled just four “big innings” (5-plus runs) in the first 28 games of the ’06 but has scored 5-plus in seven of the past 14 games.

• HBP … PDQ – The Irish lead the BIG EAST with 66 times hit-by-pitch (302 over the past three seasons) and feature five players among the top-12 on the ND career HBP charts: Cody Rizzo (1st, 77; 3rd NCAA history), Brett Lilley (2nd, 40), Alex Nettey (3rd, 38), Greg Lopez (7th, 33) and Craig Cooper (12th, 25).

• NO-FLY ZONE – The ND pitchers have allowed just 8 home runs all season (4 at Eck Stadium) and had a 25-game stretch without an opp. HR (943 BF).

• POWER SURGE – The Irish managed just 10 home runs in the first 30 games of the season bu awoke for 15 HRs in the recent homestand (12 GP).

• LEADOFF LEADER – Craig Cooper has reached base 24-of-33 times (72%) when leading off the game for the ND offense (4 HR, 6 2B) and recently compiled a 21-game hit streak.

• KILLER B’s – The pattern of rotating heroes this season has included the likes of (Matt) Bransfield, (Ross) Brezovsky, (Jeremy) Barnes and Brett (Lilley).

• SUPER AT SHORT – Greg Lopez owns a 5.5-to-1 ratio of RBI (team-best 33) to errors (6), 3rd-best among shortstops from teams currently in the BA top-25.