NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Notre Dame Softball (9-7, 3-5 ACC) will travel to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech (8-15, 3-11 ACC) March 19-21 in a four-game series. The weekend will round out Notre Dame’s five-week road stint, as the Irish will play their first home game since 2019 on March 24.
The Irish come off a 2-2 series split with North Carolina, in which senior outfielder Abby Sweet led the Irish by going 10-for-14 with a .714 batting average and two home runs. For her efforts, she was voted ACC Player of the Week and selected as an NFCA Top Performance.
The teams have met on 16 prior occasions, with the Irish leading the all-time series 13-3. When Georgia Tech plays host, the series is tied at 3-3, and the last time the two teams met was on May 5, 2019, which was a 6-4 Notre Dame win at Melissa Cook Stadium (Notre Dame, Indiana).
The Details
Location: Mewborn Stadium (Atlanta, Georgia)
Games:
- Friday, March 19: 4 p.m. ET
- ACC Network Extra: https://es.pn/38R5oQo
- Saturday, March 20 (DH1): 2 p.m. ET
- ACC Network Extra: https://es.pn/2P80980
- Saturday, March 20 (DH2): 5 p.m. ET
- ACC Network: https://es.pn/3rthSF0
- Sunday, March 21: Noon ET
- ACC Network Extra: https://es.pn/2NqHQds
Live Stats: und.com/mediastats
BY THE NUMBERS
1: OF Abby Sweet leads the ACC in batting avg. (.547), total hits (29), hits per game (1.81), doubles (8, 0.5 per game), runs per game (1.06) and on-base percentage (.579). She is among the top players in the country in doubles (ninth), triples (ninth), batting avg. (14th), doubles per game (15th), triples per game (25th) and total bases (25th).
2: OF Abby Sweet and IF Karina Gaskins own the two best batting averages in the ACC, with Sweet batting .547 and Gaskins batting .469 thus far in 2021.
3: Notre Dame came in at No. 3 in the preseason ACC Coaches poll, with IF Katie Marino on the preseason All-ACC team. Of the top six teams in the ACC, Notre Dame is one, and will face the other five in the regular season.
3: Deanna Gumpf announced the selection of three captains for the 2021 season: Seniors IF Sarah Genz, P Alexis Holloway and OF Abby Sweet. Holloway and Sweet are the eighth and ninth two-time team captains in program history.
4: OF Emma Clark wrote her name in the history books against North Alabama, stealing four bases to match a single-game program record. She joined Ruth Kmak as the only two players in Irish history to steal four bases in a game. Kmak’s record came vs. Loyola-Chicago (April 16, 1990).
5: IF Karina Gaskins racked up five RBI in the 13-0 win over Alabama State, the first Irish player to achieve the feat since All-American Cait Brooks at Pitt (April 27, 2019). Gaskins hit her first-career home run in the game, the first home run of the season for Notre Dame, scoring three runs on the play.
6: As the schedule stands for 2021, Notre Dame has faced or will face six teams that were ranked or receiving votes in the initial USA TODAY/NFCA poll: No. 8 Alabama, RV Liberty, No. 25 Duke, RV Clemson, No. 12 Florida State and No. 15 Virginia Tech (initial rankings).
7: The Irish totaled seven stolen bases in the 13-0 combined no-hitter at Alabama State, the most in program records since at least 2012.The last time Notre Dame posted four or more steals was in 2019 vs. Seattle (Feb. 21, Mary Nutter Classic).
8.9: P Alexis Holloway is striking out batters at a clip of 8.9 per every 7.0 innings. That rate ranks fourth in the ACC.
16: The Irish return 16 veterans in 2021, including every starter from the 2019-20 season. They are joined by six freshmen.
28-6: On the second day of the series at North Carolina, Notre Dame out hit the Tar Heels 28-6 through two games, outscoring North Carolina 17-0.
34: OF Abby Sweet has compiled a 34-game on-base streak, which began on Feb. 9, 2020 and has extended into this season. IF Karina Gaskins has also reached a milestone, piecing together a 11-game on-base streak, which includes every game in which she has played in 2021.