NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The University of Notre Dame baseball team will take its three-game winning streak on the road for the final week of the regular season. After the first series sweep of the season over Canisius, the Irish will battle Northwestern Tuesday afternoon in Evanston prior to heading to Boston to face Boston College in the final ACC series of the year on Thursday.
Know the Opponent: Northwestern Wildcats
- The Irish will face off with the Wildcats for the second time this season after their previous matchup at Frank Eck Stadium in April.
- Notre Dame defeated Northwestern 6-2 on April 16 after a strong pitching performance on the mound and some timely hitting.
- Tommy Vail pitched a career-high five innings and allowed just one hit to earn the win. Andrew Belcik came on for the three inning save and did not allow a run across the three frames.
- Spencer Myers scored the first two runs for the Irish after a Daniel Jung sacrifice fly and a two-RBI single from Jack Zyska.
- Zyska broke the game open in the eighth with his first career triple scoring Myers and David LaManna. Zyska ended the game with a career-high four RBI.
- Last season, the two teams split the series with both teams winning on the road.
- The Irish had their highest scoring output of the season against the Wildcats in their 19-10 win in Evanston.
- Eric Gilgenbach, Nick Podkul and Alex Kerschner all have five RBI in the win.
- The combo of Tommy Sheehan and Andrew Belcik held the Wildcats to just three hits and no runs over the first six innings of the game.
- The 19 runs were the most for the Irish since they hit the same number against Purdue on Feb. 19, 2011.
Know the Opponent: Boston College Eagles
- The Irish will finish the regular season with a three game series against Aoki’s former club in Boston College.
- Notre Dame holds a 32-15 advantage all-time against Boston College and won two-of-three against the Eagles last season.
- Niko Kavadas won the first game of the series in the 10th inning after his walk-off single gave the Irish a 5-4 win.
- The Irish clinched the series with a 5-4 comeback win in the series finale with two runs in the eighth to regain the lead. Eric Gilgenbach and Kavadas drove in the tying and go-ahead runs and Cole Kmet earned his second win of the weekend after pitching the final 2.2 innings.
Irish Arms Have Continued Success
- The Notre Dame pitching staff has continued to be the story throughout the season and this past weekend against Canisius was no different.
- All three starters pitched at least six innings in a series for the fourth time this season (at Clemson 3/15-17; vs. Florida State 3/23-24; at Pitt 4/20-21). Tommy Sheehan tallied 7.2 IP in the opener, Cameron Junker went 6 IP in the second game and Cameron Brown tossed 7.1 in the series finale.
- The starting trio still own some of top marks in the ACC with just one week remaining in the regular season.
- Notre Dame as a team ranks first in the ACC with a 4.22 ERA in conference games.
- Junker ranks fifth with a 3.23 ERA in conference games, fifth in innings pitched with 53.0 in conference games and eighth with a .215 batting average against in conference games.
- Sheehan continues to lead the conference with two complete games, second in innings pitched with 59.0 in ACC games and 17th with a 4.06 ERA in all games this season.
- Brown is tied for second in the league with one complete game, sixth in strikeouts with 81 overall and seventh in innings pitched with 71.0.
Irish Complete Post-Finals Sweep of Canisius
- The Irish hosted their last non-conference series this past weekend at Frank Eck Stadium as ACC teams are not allow to play conference opponents the week of final exams.
- The Irish aced their post-final series as they earned their first series sweep of the season and the first sweep since 2017 against Georgia Tech.
- The Irish came from behind in game one, erasing a 4-1 deficit over the final two innings.
- Notre Dame scored twice in the eighth to make it a one-run game and tied the score on a bases-loaded infield single from Spencer Myers in the ninth.
- Niko Kavadas came up next and earned a full-count walk for the walk off walk as Jack Zyska scored the winning run to win 5-4.
- In game two, Cameron Junker and Tommy Vail combined for a four-hit shutout as the Irish won 3-0. It was the third shutout of the season and Junker has been the starter in all three.
- In the series finale, the Irish held a 2-0 lead into the eighth after a strong start from Cameron Brown.
- The Griffs tied the game in the eighth and stayed 2-2 up until the 11th inning.
- The Irish had runners on second and third with Jared Miller at the plate and a walk off balk brought home Daniel Jung for the game-winning and sweep-clinching win.