April 18, 2014
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Winners of five of its last six games, the University of Notre Dame baseball team invades Coral Gables, Fla., this weekend for a showdown with consensus top-20 Atlantic Coast Conference foe Miami at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field. Fans can catch all three games nationally with Monday’s finale appearing ESPNU.
The Irish (15-21, 3-15 ACC) have been playing their best ball of the season recently as they are 5-1 in their last six games (.275 avg, 1.45 ERA). Behind complete games from sophomore LHP Michael Hearne and junior RHP Pat Connaughton, Notre Dame earned its first ACC series win last weekend against Boston College in Chicago.
During the six-game stretch, Irish pitching has thrown three complete games and given up just nine earned runs. Notre Dame starting pitching has been especially stingy as they have allowed just five earned runs (0.58 ERA) in 47.1 innings of work. At the plate, the Irish have totaled 13 doubles, four triples, 16 walks and scored 31 runs.
Meanwhile, Miami (25-12, 14-4 ACC) enters the weekend with the nation’s longest winning streak at 13 games. Along the way the Hurricanes have swept NC State, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh. Miami’s pitching has been a big reason for the team’s success as the Hurricanes are second in league-games only with a 3.07 ERA.
Notre Dame will send senior RHP Sean Fitzgerald (3-2), Hearne (2-4) and Connaughton (1-2) to the mound to dual Miami’s triple lefties – Chris Diaz (6-0), Andrew Suarez (4-1) and Bryan Radziewski (3-2).
All three games will get underway at 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday can be viewed online through ESPN3 while Monday’s contest will be ESPNU’s national game of the week with Dari Nowkhah and Danny Kanell on the call. Fans can also follow Monday’s game on ESPN3 or the WatchESPN platform.
WatchND will cover the entire series through audio with Chuck Freeby on the call. Audio links for all three games – in addition to live stats – are available on UND.com.
–Russell Dorn, Assistant Media Relations Director
–ND–