May 13, 2007
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Louisville cashed in a pair of Notre Dame defensive miscues to claim a 4-1 midgame lead and held off several Irish chances the rest of the way, as the Cardinals won Sunday’s game at Patterson Field, 7-3. It marks just the fourth time in 12 years of BIG EAST baseball play that Notre Dame has been swept in a three-game series.
(Note: this full recap now includes additional game details, team notes and updated BIG EAST playoff picture.)
Notre Dame (27-23, 10-13 BIG EAST) remains close to clinching a spot in the eight-team BIG EAST Tournament and potentially could do so by winning one game of the upcoming three-game series with Connecticut, on March 17-19 at Eck Stadium. Louisville (36-16, 17-7) stayed in contention for the BIG EAST regular-season title, just a game back of St. John’s and Rutgers (both 18-6) heading into a final series for the Cardinals at Cincinnati.
Two of Louisville’s three runs in the 3rd inning were unearned while the ensuing run in the 4th was aided by a missed flyout down the leftfield line (officially scored as a double). The Irish had 15 baserunners in the game but managed to score only three, as the team’s offensive efficiency continued to struggle with 1-for-14 batting when runners were in scoring position and 0-for-7 with 2-outs. Notre Dame hit just 2-for-24 with men in scoring position during the series yet was outscored by a total of just seven runs over the course of the three games.
Notre Dame junior shortstop Brett Lilley reached base five times, after batting 2-for-3 with a pair of walks, plus another time reached via error. Lilley boosted his lofty season on-base percentage to .515, including 67 hits, 29 walks and 25 times hit-by-pitch.
Sophomore righthander Kyle Weiland (4-2) was touched for four earned runs in 5.0 innings, but his own fielding error on a sacrifice bunt allowed the two unearned runs to score (as did a wild pitch that resulted in a strikeout victim reaching base, further extending that inning). Weiland allowed seven hits and one walk while striking out six in his return to the weekend rotation.
Righander Colby Wark (3-3) notched the win (5.1 IP, R, 4 H, 4 BB, 5 Ks) for the Cardinals.
Louisville’s early three-run sequence – which saw the Irish essentially give the hosts five outs in that bottom of the 3rd – included Pete Rodriguez’s leadoff double down the line (past diving freshman third baseman A.J. Pollock), Weiland’s bobble on the ensuing sacrifice bunt, Boomer Whiting’s RBI double placed down the leftfield line and a wild pitch on the third strike to Logan Johnson (leaving men at the corners while a run came home). Daniel Burton capped the inning with a sacrifice fly to left field, plating a second unearned run.
Both teams scored in the next inning, with senior centerfielder Danny Dressman starting things for the Irish by sliding in headfirst for a bunt single to the right side. Jeremy Barnes followed by pulling a single through the left side and a 1-out wild pitch advanced the runners before another WP (with 2-outs) allowed Dressman to score.
Chris Dominguez reached to start the bottom of the inning, earning the leadoff double when his flyball down the leftfield line failed to be caught. The deficit grew to 4-1 moments later, after a runner-advancing lineout to right and Derrick Alfonso’s single through the left side.
Louisville went on to add two runs in the 5th – after consecutive doubles from Johnson and Daniel Burton, plus a stolen base and RBI groundout – before pushing the lead to 7-1 in the 6th, thanks to a Derrick Alfonso double, a groundout and Whiting’s single up the middle.
Notre Dame chipped away with a run in the 7th, in a bizarre sequence that included Eddy Mendiola’s pinch-hit walk, a 1-out throwing error by the shortstop Chris Cates and then a rare two-base error that was charged to pitcher Skylar Meade when he threw the game ball into his dugout assuming that time had been called (by rule, both runners were awarded two bases).
For the third straight game, the Irish staged a 9th-inning rally. Senior first baseman Mike Dury opened the inning with a double down the leftfield line before Gavin Logsdon lost 9-hole hitter Brayden Ashdown on a 1-out walk. Things then got interesting when Lilley sent an opposite-field single into left – loading the bases with the tying run on deck.
Pollock worked a walk, forcing home Dury for a 7-3 score, but Logsdon rolled up Louisville’s sixth double play of the series (6-4-3) to end the game.
BIG EAST PLAYOFF PICTURE – Notre Dame will enter the UConn series in 7th place, one game in front of Cincinnati (9-14) … the Irish can finish no higher than 5th and currently sit right behind Villanova (11-13) while South Florida (12-12) holds down the #5 spot … UConn is in 9th (8-13), followed by West Virginia (8-15), Seton Hall (7-14) and Georgetown (7-17; the Hoyas cannot catch the Irish) … next week’s other series include Rutgers at Villanova, Seton Hall at Pitt, Louisville at Cincinnati, Georgetown at WVU and St. John’s at USF … ND likely would clinch a playoff spot by winning one game in the UConn series, as the Irish own the potential head-to-head tiebreaker vs. WVU (ND also could end up in a 3-team tie for 7th or a 4-team tie for 6th, which could then require a more intricate tiebreaking procedure) … final standings are based on win pct. … the Irish even could make the BET without winning a game vs. UConn, but that would require: one loss from SHU, one L from WVU and an 0-3 finish by Cincinnati (note that some of the variables also could change slightly if any the games are rained out) … an ND sweep of the UConn series could move the Irish up to 6th or 5th (Villanova then would have to lose at least one game to fall behind ND; USF would have to lose twice to finish below the Irish) … ND’s head-to-head results have included 2-1 vs. four teams (GU, WVU, RU and SHU), 1-2 vs. USF and CIN, 0-2 vs. Pitt and 0-3 vs. UL (the Irish do not play VU and SJU during the 2007 regular season) … earlier games rained out include the entire SHU-UConn series and single games between ND-Pitt and WVU-CIN … after head-to-head tiebreakers, the next criteria is combined record vs. the teams ranked higher in the standings … the BIG EAST Tournament – to be held at minor-league Keyspan Park, in Brooklyn, N.Y. – will feature two double-elimination brackets (one with seeds 1-4-5-8 and the other with 2-3-6-7) … the winners of each bracket then will play a single championship game, on Sat., May 26 … 1st-round games will be on Tuesday, May 22, while all teams will play their second games on Wed., May 23 (two teams will be eliminated that day) … the two teams that go 2-0 in their brackets will have on off-day on May 24 (when two other teams are eliminated) … the two teams that survive elimination then will advance to the final round of bracket play on Friday, May 25 (the teams that started 2-0 would have to be beaten twice that day by the remaining team in their respective brackets).
NOTES – The only other BIG EAST teams ever to post 3-0 series sweeps of Notre Dame have been Seton Hall (’97), UConn (’02) and St. John’s (’05), all on the road … Pollock (.376) holds a narrow lead over Lilley (.372) atop the team batting charts, with each totaling 67 hits (Lilley has two more at-bats) … Pollock has 13 more RBI (26-13) but Lilley has scored more runs (51-36) … their walk totals are nearly identical (Pollock 30, Lilley 29) but Lilley also has the 25 HBPs (to just 3 for Pollock) … both have totaled nine extra-base hits (Pollock 3 HR, 5 2B and a 3B; Lilley 5 2B, 3 3B and a HR) … Pollock has a team-best 24 multiple-hit games, followed by Lilley (20) and Dressman (19) … Lilley has hits in 37 of his 51 games played this season and has yet to go three straight games without a hit (he has only a pair of 2-game hit “droughts”) … Lilley has been on base this season in all but three games (48 of 51), with an 8-game hit streak being his longest of the season … Pollock has hits in 34 of his 49 games played, including 10 of the past 11 (his season-best 9-game hit streak came in that span) … Pollock had an early 5-game hitless streak but has gone without a hit in back-to-back games just once since then (that short hit drought lasted just the two games) … Pollock’s current batting avg. would rank as the best by an ND freshman since 1994 (when Scott Sollmann hit .402) and would by 3rd-best ever by an ND freshman (Eric Danapilis hit .429, as a rookie on the 1990 team) … Pollock could join Lilley (.355, in ’05), Danapilis and Pete Schmidt (.367, in ’71) as the only freshmen ever to lead the Irish in season batting avg. (Lilley was the only rookie to be ND’s top hitter during the previous 16 seasons while he and Danapilis were ND’s only freshman batting champs in the 35-year span from 1972-2006) … if Lilley finishes atop the 2007 ND batting charts, he would join a select group of eight previous Irish players who have been the team’s top hitters in multiple seasons (dating back to at least 1948) … the only players with multiple ND batting titles during the past 40-plus years have included Steve Stanley (2000-02), Brant Ust (1998-99), Danapils (’90 and ’92) and Dan Peltier (1988-89) … the others include Rich Gonski (1963-64), Jim Morris (1957-58), Mark Tremblay (1953-54) and Dick Giedlin (1949-50) … should Lilley win the 2007 team batting title, he then would have the chance in ’08 to join Stanley as the program’s only three-time batting leaders … the past five players who have been multiple batting champs all were All-Americans (Gonski, Peltier, Danapilis, Ust and Stanley) … Lilley’s .515 on-base pct. would rank 6th in ND history and 2nd-best since ’93 (behind Craig Cooper’s .522 in ’06) … the ND defense has totaled just 15 errors in the past 16 games (several of those Es have been made by pitchers), including three errorless games and three with 1 E over the span of the past six games … Pollock made 17 errors in his first 37 games played this season but has just 2 Es in the past 12 games … Lilley has played error-free in 28 of the past 30 games (3 Es in that span) … Lilley now has started all 171 games of his ND career … the top-3 starting streaks in ND history are 256 by Steve Stanley (1999-2002), 206 by Pat Pesavento (1986-89) and 179 by Brant Ust (1997-99) … Dressman still has made only one error all season and has played error-free over the past 42 games … Dury has seven more extra-base hots (25; 9 HR, 3B, 15 2B) than singles (18).
Notre Dame 0-0-0 1-0-0 1-0-1 – 3 6 1
Louisville 0-0-3 1-2-1 0-0-X – 7 9 2
Kyle Weiland (L, 4-2), Eric Maust (6), Wade Korpi (7), Sam Elam (8) and Matt Weglarz.
Colby Wark (W, 3-3), Skylar Meade (6), Gavin Logsdon and Derrick Alfonso.
Doubles: Mike Dury (ND), Boomer Whiting (LOU), Logan Johnson (LOU), Daniel Burton (LOU), Chris Dominguez (LOU), Pete Rodriguez (LOU).