March 28, 2005

The Notre Dame baseball team has added a makeup game versus Ball State, slated for Wed., April 6 at Eck Stadium (5:05 p.m. EST). The game restores Notre Dame’s regular-season schedule to the maximum 56 games and replaces the March 6 game vs. Rice that was rained out in Round Rock, Texas.

The Ball State game tentatively was on the 2005 preseason schedule, stenciled in as a potential makeup game for any Notre Dame rainouts in the first half of the season.

Notre Dame (11-10) resumes its seven-game homestand on March 29 vs. Western Michigan before playing host to Chicago State on the 30th (both games start at 5:05). Freshman lefthander Wade Korpi is the probable starting pitcher vs. WMU while his classmate, righthander Joey Williamson, is scheduled to get the start vs. the Cougars. The Irish then head to Rutgers this weekend for a showdown three-game series between the BIG EAST co-leaders.

Notre Dame traditionally has played its best ball during the second half of the season, winning 81% of its April games (195-46) during the first 10 seasons of the Paul Mainieri era – compared to just a .667 winning pct. by Mainieri-era teams during games played in Jan., Feb. and March (165-82-1).