May 7, 2007
Notre Dame sophomore pitcher David Phelps – who currently leads the BIG EAST Conference in season ERA (1.58), strikeouts (78) and victories (8-3) – has been named the BIG EAST baseball pitcher of the week for the second time this season, following his complete-game win in the series opener versus Seton Hall on May 4. The ace righthander totaled a career-high 11 strikeouts and walked none while allowing just five hits from the Pirates and facing only 31 batters (four over the minimum), in the 3-1 Friday-night win that represented his fourth complete game of the season.
Phelps and South Florida senior righthander Danny Otero are the only repeat selections for BIG EAST pitcher of the week this season, with Phelps picking up his earlier honor after outdueling Otero on the first league weekend – in addition to earlier being named to the BIG EAST weekly honor roll (one of his three overall league honors this season). Only two BIG EAST players have received more than three total BIG EAST weekly honors this season (pitcher/player of the week or honor roll): Villanova pitcher Mike Loree and Louisville pitcher Zach Pitts (both four-time honor-roll selections).
Back on pace to post the best season ERA by a Notre Dame pitcher in the past 17 seasons, Phelps currently ranks sixth among the national ERA leaders (minimum of 50 innings pitched). In addition to owning the BIG EAST’s best overall ERA, highest strikeout total and most wins (shared with two others), Phelps is tied for the league leads in strikeouts “looking” (36; nearly 47% of his total Ks) and pickoffs (5; a high number for a RHP), also ranking second among the league leaders in innings pitched (85.2), third in starts (12) and sixth in low opponent batting average (.225). In league games only, Phelps is tied for the most wins (5-2) while ranking second in Ks (52), innings (50) and pickoffs (3), third in Ks looking (23), fourth in ERA (1.78) and sixth in low opponent batting avg. (.214).
The opener of the SHU series saw Phelps locate two-thirds of his pitches for strikes (71 of 107) while getting to 3-ball counts on just five batters. All but four of his 27 outs came via strikeouts (11, including 4 looking) or groundouts (12), plus a pair of pickoff moves and two routine flyouts to the centerfielder Danny Dressman (corner outfielders Ross Brezovsky and Ryan Connelly had just a handful of touches all night, with two singles to each gap and a double down the leftfield line).
Phelps sizzled for six different 1-2-3 innings (one with an assist from a pickoff move) in the SHU opener and faced just the minimum eight batters through 2.2 innings. He later surrendered a leadoff double in the 7th but closed with nine straight outs, including three strikeouts to quickly close that frame, three straight middle-infield groundouts in the 8th and then a flyout and a pair of groundouts in the 9th. The Pirates had multiple baserunners in only the 3rd and 6th innings, with Phelps limited the visitors to 1-for-7 batting when runners were on base, 1-for-5 with men in scoring position and 2-for-11 with 2-outs (he also allowed just three leadoff baserunners to reach and held SHU’s lefthanded batters to an 0-for-11 night). Mark Pappas led off the 6th with a single to left-center and moved up on a sacrifice bunt. Phelps was able to catch leadoff batter Matt Smedberg looking at strike-3 but Mike Young came through with a 2-out, RBI single. With the tying run aboard, Phelps bore down and induced a groundball to the shortstop Brett Lilley to keep the Irish in the lead.
One has to go all the way back to April 30, 1996, to find a Notre Dame pitcher who went 9.0 innings and reached double-digit Ks without walking a batter (Dan Stavisky had 10 Ks that night in a 3-hit, 2-0 win over Pittsburgh). The previous time that an ND starting pitcher had double-digit Ks and no walks was RHP John Axford’s 7.0-inning stint vs. Western Michigan on 4/9/03 (12 Ks, 1 R, 6 H; 7-1 win). It has been three years since any ND pitcher had 10-plus Ks and no walks in the same game (RHP Chris Niesel K’d 12 in 8.1 relief innings during a classic 15-inning battle with Ball State on 4/27/04, with ND winning 7-6 and Niesel’s shutout totals including 4 hits allowed). Each of those games (10-plus Ks, no walks) took place at Eck Stadium.
Phelps also joined a pair of lefthanders – current teammate Wade Korpi (11 vs. Western Michigan and Purdue, in ’06) and early 1990s ace Tom Price (10 vs. Illinois-Chicago and Indiana State, in ’94) – as the only Notre Dame pitchers ever to post a double-digit K game twice in the same season at Eck Stadium (which opened in ’94), with Phelps earlier totaling 10 Ks in the win over USF. He is the ninth overall Notre Dame pitcher with multiple double-digit K games in a season (regardless of site) and could join an elite group of four others who have totaled three-plus games of 10-plus Ks in the same season: LHP Tim Kalita (3 in ’99), RHP Aaron Heilman (3 in 2000), RHP Danny Tamayo (5 in ’01) and Korpi (3 in ’06). The 11 Ks were one shy of tying the Eck Stadium record for strikeouts by an ND pitcher (12), shared by Axford (’03, vs. WMU), Niesel (’04, in relief vs. Ball State) and LHP Tom Thornton (’04, in NCAA elimination game vs. Kent State).
A leading candidate for both All-America and Academic All-America honors (he carries a 3.36 cumulative GPA, as a double major in political science and computer applications), Phelps leads the Irish pitching staff in 10 different categories: ERA, wins, innings, Ks, starts, pickoffs, Ks looking, groundouts (94), opponent batting with runners on base (.180) and average innings per appearance (7.1). Freshman RHP Eric Maust is the only Irish regular with a better strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.7) or low walk ratio (1.4/9 IP) than Phelps (3.9 K/BB; 2.1 BB/9 IP) while junior RHP Joey Williamson’s strikeout rate of 9.6 Ks per 9 IP is the only mark better than Phelps (8.2), who has allowed just 31% of leadoff batters to reach this season (2.8 per 9 IP; 2nd-best on the staff). Phelps also ranks third on the staff in low opponent batting avg. (.225) and batting by both lefthanded (.216) and righthanded (.231) hitters while his 7.5 hits allowed per 9 IP likewise is 3rd-best among the ND pitchers.
Phelps has totaled 15 more innings pitched (85.2) than hits allowed (71) this season and has reached 7.0 innings in eight of his 12 starts, including five straight. He has posted 7-plus strikeouts six times (including four of his past five starts) and his 9-inning averages include (in addition to those listed above) 9.9 groundouts and 36.8 batters faced, with his 27 outs per 9 IP including 18.1 via Ks or GOs, plus a solid 9.6 “WHIP” (walks plus hits per 9.0). Phelps now is just 22 Ks shy of becoming the fifth Notre Dame pitcher to reach 100 strikeouts in a season.
A small boost in run support and team defense earlier in the season could have resulted in a current 11-1 record for Phelps, whose four starts without a win (vs. Texas State, Sacred Heart, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati) have seen the Irish total just six runs while Phelps has allowed only seven earned runs in those four games (plus five unearned). Jay Monti, the Sacred Heart pitcher who picked up the 3-0 vs. ND this season, currently leads the nation with an 0.91 season ERA while the Cincinnati pitcher (LHP Dan Osterbrock) who won the game started by Phelps owns the BIG EAST’s 5th-best ERA (2.50). Nearly half of the 25 runs charged to Phelps this season (10 of 25) have been unearned,
Phelps has gone the full 9.0 innings in three of his four complete games this season (also 8.0 in the loss at Cincinnati). In in a check back to 1996 (spanning the past 12 seasons), only two Notre Dame pitchers have totaled more than three 9.0-inning complete games in a season: Heilman (5) and Tamayo (4), both in 2001. The 2006 staff totaled only three complete games (two of them 9.0 innings) in that entire season while Thornton had three 9.0 CGs in 2004.
The upcoming series at Louisville will feature three of the top pitchers in the BIG EAST, with Phelps looking to remain atop the league’s ERA leader list that also includes Louisville junior RHP Zack Pitts (1.79) and freshman LHP Justin Marks (1.79) in the 3rd and 4th spots among the ERA leaders.
Phelps is one of just seven players who have received three or more total BIG EAST weekly honors this season, joining Loree (4), Pitts (4), USF shortstop Walter Diaz (3), Cincinnati centerfielder Tony Campana (3) and West Virginia leftfielder Justin Jenkins (3) in that distinction. Louisville (4) and Rutgers (3) are the only teams to feature more players who have received multiple BIG EAST weekly honors in the 2007 season, as Lilley twice has been named to the honor roll.
Five different Notre Dame players – also Dressman, freshman third baseman A.J. Pollock and sophomore RHP Sam Elam (both one-time honor roll selections) – have received weekly BIG EAST honors this season, with Villanova (7), USF (6), Rutgers (6) and Louisville (6) producing the most different honorees this season. Notre Dame’s total of eight BIG EAST weekly honors this season trails only Louisville (12), Villanova (10), USF (9) and Rutgers (9). While Phelps and Otero are the only BIG EAST pitcher-of-the-week repeaters, 12 different players have combined to earn the BIG EAST player-of-the-week honor this season.
Phelps previously was named BIG EAST pitcher of the week after winning the rare 1-0 game with USF on March 23, reaching double-digit Ks for the first time in his career (10) and logging his first complete game while allowing just three hits, a walk and a hit batter. He faced only 32 Bulls batters (five over the minimum) that Friday night and did not allow any USF runners to venture beyond first base. Phelps located 78 of his 115 pitches for strikes (68%) in that game while holding the potent USF lineup to 0-for-11 batting with runners on base and 1-for-9 with 2-outs (the Bulls lefthanded hitters were limited to a 1-for-12 night). He became the first righthanded pitcher to throw a 9-inning solo shutout since J.P. Gagne’s 1-0 win over BYU midway through the 2002 College World Series season (that also was the ND’s previous 1-0, 9-inning game).
He earlier was named to the BIG EAST honor roll for the week of Feb. 19-25, after his six strong innings helped knock off #12 TCU, 4-1 (unearned run, 5 H, BB, 5 Ks, 24 BF), at the Baseball Bash in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Lilley first was named to the BIG EAST honor roll in late March, after batting .571 (12-for-21, HR, 2 3B, 4 BB, .907 slugging, .604 on-base) in a five-game stretch that included midweek games with Cleveland State and Western Michigan and the opening series of the BIG EAST season vs. USF. He then repeated the honor in late April, after reaching base 12 times and factoring into nine different Irish runs during a 3-1 week (April 23-29), as the Irish posted a midweek win over Ball State and took 2-of-3 at league leader Rutgers. Lilley hit 4-for-9 in that four-game stretch (4 RBI, 5 R, 2B, 3 BB, 5 HBP, sac. fly; extended errorless streak to 21 games).
Dressman was named to the honor roll after batting .550 over the final five Spring Break games (11-for-20, 6 RBI, 5 R, 3B, 2B, 2 BB, K, sac. bunt, SB, 0 Es; March 12-18). The Irish also recently had two players named to the honor roll for the week of April 16-22, after midweek wins over Toledo and Purdue and taking 2-of-3 from West Virginia. The double honorees for that week included Pollock (8-for-19, 6 RBI, 7 R, HR, 2 2B, SB) and Elam, whose historic starter versus Purdue included surrendering his only hit in 9.0 innings with 2-outs in the 8th (he finished with a career-high 9 Ks, plus 6 BB, 33 BF, 73 of 122 pitches for strikes), as he became the first Notre Dame pitcher since Grant Johnson in 2002 (vs. South Alabama, in the NCAAs) to throw a 9-inning, solo 1-hitter. Elam allowed just three balls to reach the outfield, with his 27 outs including the 9 Ks, 12 groundouts, a couple of infield popups, a pair of flyouts, another ball caught by the centerfielder just beyond the infield dirt, and a pickoff move (he allowed only one leadoff baserunner all night and faced just four baserunners in scoring position, with one reaching third base).