Friday's overflow crowd will mark the fourth time this season that Notre Dame has sold a record number of tickets for games at Eck Stadium.

Friday-Night Game With Rutgers Declared An Advance Sellout, With Possibility For Some Tickets Released At Game Time

April 20, 2006

For the first time in the 13-year history of Notre Dame’s Eck Stadium, an advance sellout has been declared – as an unprecedented number of advance ticket sales for Friday night’s baseball game versus Rutgers (April 21; 6:05 EDT) has prompted the Notre Dame Ticket Office to cease taking ticket orders for that game, as of 5:00 p.m. Thursday. The combination of the steady flow of advance tickets and the pre-existing allotment for season ticketholders, students, faculty and staff has resulted in the pre-game sellout. There remains the likelihood that additional fans could purchase tickets after the first pitch and a “standby” line will be made available for that eventuality.

All fans – including those who have purchased advance tickets, plus season ticketholders, students, faculty and staff – are advised to arrive at Eck Stadium by 5:30 to best streamline the general-admission seating process. Fans also are encouraged to purchase advance tickets for Saturday’s game versus Rutgers, which will start at 3:05 to roughly coincide with the finish of the annual Blue-Gold intrasquad football game (held across the street at Notre Dame Stadium).

The 16th-ranked Irish (29-8) will put their 19-game winning streak – longest in the program’s history and longest in Division I this season – on the line in the series opener versus Rutgers. Two-sport star Jeff Samardzija will be on the mound for Notre Dame on a night that already has created plenty of pre-game stir:

* The advance sellout ultimately will produce an Eck Stadium record-setting number of tickets sold for the fourth time this season, with the first record set for the Friday-night game versus Pittsburgh on March 31 (3,028, including season tickets) while 3,052 tickets were sold for the April 13 doubleheader versus St. John’s and then 3,101 were sold for the series finale with SJU on April 15.

* Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis – a New Jersey native – will be on hand for the first-pitch ceremony on Friday night before handing the ball over to his All-American wide receiver Samardzija. Weis will be joined in the first-pitch ceremony by the Notre Dame football team’s three 2006 captains (Brady Quinn, Tom Zbikowski and Travis Thomas) and the coach’s son, Charlie Weis, Jr., a baseball player in his own right who will do the honors of throwing out the first pitch.

* The Notre Dame leprechaun will be making a special appearance at Friday night’s game.

509786.jpeg

The first 1,500 fans through the gates on Friday night will receive this special two-sport poster of Jeff Samardzija (photo by Mike Bennett).

spacer.gif

spacer.gif

* A special commemorative two-sport poster of Samardzija (sponsored by Yellow Book) will be the giveaway at Friday night’s game. The poster measures two-feet by three-feet and will be available to the first 1,500 fans in attendance.

* Plenty of professional baseball scouts should be in attendance for both Friday and Saturday’s games, as Samardzija and his classmate Jeff Manship (the game-2 starter) currently are rated among college baseball’s top-50 prospects for the 2006 Major League draft.

* The longtime radio voice of Notre Dame football – Tony Roberts – will be in attendance on Friday night. An avid baseball fan, Roberts annually provides radio broadcasts from Omaha for the College World Series.

* ESPN and CSTV both have dispatched camera crews to shoot footage of Friday’s game while other media outlets in town for the Blue-Gold game also are expected to provide coverage of the baseball game.

* Other giveaways for the weekend include the first 175 fans to Saturday’s game receiving a Notre Dame poncho (sponsored by Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center) while early-arriving fans to Sunday’s game will receive Notre Dame team trading cards, sponsored by Service Printers, with pre-game concessions provided by Krispy Kreme doughnuts … a free pre-game Kid’s Clinic for Sunday morning already has attracted 250 entrants (registration starts at 10:00 a.m. and the clinic begins at 10:30, with each child that participates receiving free admission to the game; call 631-3264 to register your child, 8th-grade and younger)

* After the Rutgers series, Notre Dame has six remaining regular-season home games, with the following promotions: early-arriving fans for the April 25th Purdue game will receive an ND batting helmet (sponsored by Stephenson Marketing) … early-arriving fans for the April 26th Bowling Green game will receive an ND baseball alarm clock … the first 2000 fans to the May 2nd Cleveland State game will receive an ND baseball cap (sponsored by Chevy) … early-arriving fans to the Friday-night game on May 5th will receive an ND baseball glass (sponsored by Between the Buns and Coca-Cola) … early-arriving fans for the May 6th game vs. Louisville will receive an ND sunglass case (sponsored by Coca-Cola) … and early-arriving fans for the May 7th game vs. Louisville will receive an ND mini bat (sponsored by Papa John’s Pizza).