Irish Start League Play

March 10, 2017

By Michael Scholl

Five Things To Know

• The University of Notre Dame baseball team opens its fourth season in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a three-game set at No. 14 Clemson. The Irish have opened ACC play on the road during every season in the league and are looking to continue a two-game winning streak started last weekend at the USA Baseball-Irish Classic in Cary, North Carolina. All three games can be seen on ACC Network Extra (via WatchESPN) and heard live on WatchND. The Saturday and Sunday games are slated to air on 103.1 FM in the South Bend area.
• The all-time series between Notre Dame and Clemson is tied 5-5. The first meeting came in 1994, an 8-1 Irish victory at the NCAA East Regional in Clemson, South Carolina, which propelled Pat Murphy’s club to the regional final for the second time in three years. Notre Dame took the series from Clemson each of the first two seasons in the ACC, winning games one and three at Frank Eck Stadium in 2013 and then taking games two and three at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in 2014. Last year, the Tigers visited The Eck on the final weekend and swept Notre Dame.
• Notre Dame has won its opening conference game one time in the three years as an ACC member, taking a 3-2 decision at Georgia Tech in 10 innings in 2015. As members of the BIG EAST Conference, Notre Dame posted a 12-6 record in league lid-lifters. The Irish have not opened conference play at home since 2013, the final BIG EAST year, when Seton Hall won a 4-3 ballgame at The Eck.
• Freshman Daniel Jung drove the Irish offense in a 4-0 victory over Monmouth to cap the weekend at the USA Baseball-Irish Classic in Cary, North Carolina. The rookie delivered a pair of solo shots, a double and a sacrifice bunt in his final at-bat. With the two dingers, Jung became the first Irish player with multiple home runs in a game since Jake Shepski drilled three at Virginia Tech last season. Jung was also the first Irish player to record 10 total bases in a game since Zak Kutsulis on March 11, 2016, at No. 4 Louisville.
• All three Irish pitchers featured in the D1Baseball Top 100 College Prospects are slated to start for Mik Aoki’s club this weekend. Brandon Bielak (No. 82) will throw on Friday, Peter Solomon (No. 16) will take the hill on Saturday and Brad Bass (No. 96) gets the ball on Sunday. Bielak took a no-decision last weekend in the 4-3 loss to Maryland after allowing one earned run on five hits with six strikeouts and two walks over six innings of work. Solomon was dealt his first loss of the season against UMass Lowell last weekend, giving up four earned with eight strikeouts and six walks in 6.1 innings. Bass was the winning pitcher in the 4-0 win over Monmouth, striking out nine Hawks while allowing just four base hits (three infield singles) in seven innings.

– ND –

Michael Scholl joined Fighting Irish Media in August 2016, coordinating communications for the baseball program and assisting with the football team at his alma mater. The South Bend native earned a degree in political science from the College of Arts & Letters in 2009 before going on to work in athletics communications at Providence College, Vanderbilt and Cincinnati.