Wade Korpi ranked 17th in the nation during the 2006 season with a 2.00 ERA and was 15th on the NCAA list for strikeout rate, with 11.1 Ks per 9.0 innings pitched.

Korpi And Weiland Named To BIG EAST Honor Roll; Irish Move Up In Polls; Week-11 Rotation Set

May 2, 2006

Two Notre Dame pitchers – sophomore lefthander Wade Korpi and freshman righthander Kyle Weiland – have been named to the BIG EAST Conference weekly baseball honor roll, after playing lead roles for the Irish pitching staff in a five-game stretch last week. In other news, Notre Dame has moved up to 10th in the Baseball America poll while remaining 8th per Collegiate Baseball magazine, also moving up to 14th in the Natioal Collegiate Baseball Writers poll, 15th in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll and 17th per Rosenblatt Report. The Irish are heading into their final four home games of the regular season, with a planned rotation set for the May 2 game (5:05) versus Cleveland State (sophomore lefthander David Gruener and freshman righthander Brett Graffy are slated to be the first pitchers used). The first two games of the series with Louisville then will feature junior righthanders Jeff Samardzija (Fri., May 5; 6:05) and Jeff Manship (Sat., May 6; 1:05) while the Sunday starter (May 7, 12:05) will be a lefthander – either senior Tom Thornton or Korpi.

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Kyle Weiland has allowed just one earned run in his past 11 appearances (17.2 IP), pushing his save total to 12 while lowering his ERA to 2.43 (photo by Pete LaFleur).

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Korpi took over the BIG EAST overall ERA lead (1.53) after a rare week in which he made two pressure-packed starts, logging a pair of 7-inning outings while posting a 0.64 ERA, better than a 5-to-1 K-to-walk ratio (16/3), a .137 opp. batting avg. and twice as many innings pitched (14) as hits allowed (7). Korpi faced several layers of pressure in the March 25 midweek start vs. Purdue, with the Irish riding 22-game win streak at the time, the game on national TV (ESPN-U) and the need to work efffectively so he could possibly return on Sunday in place of the injured Thornton. Korpi matched his career-high with 11 strikeouts in the 2-1 win over the Boilermakers while allowing just a single hit, one walk and an unearned run to help beat one of the Big Ten’s top teams. He retired 17 straight batters at one point in that game, after allowing the first-inning unearned run (via an error, a hit batter and a hit that squeezed through the infield).

His performance against Purdue made Korpi the seventh Notre Dame pitcher (first since ’01) with multiple double-digit strikeout games in the same season (he also had 11 Ks in a 3-hit solo shutout of Western Michigan, on March 29). The 11 strikeouts were one shy of the ND record for Eck Stadium, shared by John Axford, Chris Niesel and Thornton.

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Wade Korpi is riding a dominant five-week stretch that has seen him allow just two earned runs in 41.2 innings, with 49 Ks, only 12 walks and 20 hits allowed in those six starts (photo by Matt Cashore).

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Korpi came back on Sunday, April 30, to wage a pitching duel with Connecticut’s Nick Tucci, leaving a 1-1 game in the 7th (ended 1-1, after 13). He held UConn to a single run in the 5th, on six hits and two walks while posting five Ks. Korpi allowed only five UConn runners to reach scoring position, with just one advancing to third base. He limited the Huskies to one leadoff batter reaching base and 2-for-11 batting with runners in scoring position.

Weiland made three shutout relief appearances last week, recording his 11th and 12th saves of the season while totaling seven strikeouts in 6.2 innings and allowing just two walks and three hits (.136 opp. avg.), plus a hit batter. He retired three of four batters faced to wrap up the 2-1 win over Purdue and then saved the 7-6 opener at UConn by setting down the final two batters of the game. Weiland capped his big week with a season-long 5-inning stint in the series finale vs. the Huskies, striking out seven with two hits, two walks and the hit batter.

Over the course of the past four weeks, Weiland has allowed just one earned run in 11 appearances spanning 17.2 innings (0.53 ERA), with 17 Ks, 4 walks and 13 hits allowed in that month-long stretch. He now has logged five straight shutout outings, covering 11.2 innings (12 Ks, 5 H, 2 BB).

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Kyle Weiland’s 12 saves are second-most by any closer from teams currently in the Baseball America top-25 (photo by Matt Cashore).

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Last week’s NCAA stat leaders featured Weiland 11th in the nation with 10 saves (only two closers in the nation had more than 12 saves last week). Weiland’s current total of 12 saves leads the BIG EAST and is one shy of the Notre Dame season record (13), set by All-American J.P. Gagne in 2003. A check of the other teams currently in the Baseball America top-25 shows that Oregon State’s Kevin Gunderson (14) is the only closer from a BA top-25 team with more saves than Weiland while Cal State Fullerton’s Vinnie Pestano is the only other top-25 closer with 12 saves. Weiland’s season stats also now include a 2.43 ERA, a .231 opponent batting average, nearly a 2-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (30/16), seven more innings pitched (33.1) than hits allowed (27), four hit batters and five wild pitches. He has allowed just three extra-base hits all season (HR, 3B, 2B), a mark bettered by only Pestano (2 2B), UNC’s Andrew Carrigan (2B) and Florida State’s Luke Tucker (2B) among the closers from teams in the BA top-25.

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Wade Korpi’s 11.29 strikeouts per 9.0 innings would rank 2nd-best by a Notre Dame pitcher in the past 40 seasons (photo by Matt Cashore).

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In addition to owning the top ERA among the BIG EAST leaders (1.53), Korpi also ranks 2nd on the conference stat charts for low opponent batting avg. (.192), 3rd in total strikeouts (74) and Ks “looking” (23), and 7th in wins (5-1). The BIG EAST stat leaders include 37 pitchers who have logged at least one inning per team game this season and Korpi is one of just three from that group who have yet to surrender a home run this season. His other stats include a 4.1 K-to-walk ratio (74/18) and 19 more innings (59) than hits allowed (40). Korpi entered last week ranked 15th in the nation with 11.60 Ks per 9 IP (now 11.29, which would rank 5th in the ND record book and 2nd-best since ’65). His 1.80 ERA entering last week was good for 28th-best in the NCAA rankings – with the updated NCAA stats for this week stil yet to be released as of 11:00 a.m. Tuesday morning (1.53 would have ranked 17th on last week’s NCAA list).

Korpi joins Weiland in riding a hot streak during the second half of the season. Since suffering his only loss of the season on March 21 (vs. Wright State), Korpi has allowed just two earned runs (also two unearned) in 41.2 innings, for a microscopic 0.43 ERA over that five-week stretch. He owns better than a 4-to-1 K-to-walk ratio (49/12) during those six starts, with more than twice as many innings (41.2) as hits allowed (20) during that stretch.

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Kyle Weiland has converted all but one of his save opportunities this season and is one shy of tying J.P. Gagne’s team record for saves in a season (photo by Pete LaFleur).

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