May 4, 2007
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David Phelps entered Notre Dame’s series opener with Seton Hall as the BIG EAST leader in ERA (1.64) and managed to drop that already impressive number five points lower (1.59; on pace to be best by an ND pitcher in 17 years), as the sophomore righthander struck out a career-high 11 and walked none to round out Friday night’s five-hit, 3-1 win that represented his fourth complete game of the season. The surging Irish (26-20, 9-9 BIG EAST) now sit alone in 5th-place of the BIG EAST Conference standings, bouncing back from a 1-6 start in league play to go 8-3 in their past 11 BIG EAST games.
Phelps (8-3), who easily could be 11-1 with just a little more run support earlier in the season, solidified his spot among the frontrunners for BIG EAST pitcher-of-the-year honors – with next weekend’s series at Louisville to feature a showcase of top pitching talent as a pair of Cardinals pitchers entered the week occupying the next two spots among the league ERA leaders (junior RHP Zack Pitts is at 1.74 and freshman LHP Justin Marks at 2.34). A night of tremendous pitching control at Eck Stadium saw Phelps locate two-thirds of his pitches for strikes (71 of 107) while getting to 3-ball counts on just five batters. Hall 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).
Six weeks earlier, Phelps had turned in several rarities by going the full 9.0 innings (with 10 Ks) to outduel South Florida’s Danny Otero, in a 1-0 thriller. Friday’s night gem likewise produced several other unique distinctions for Phelps, who became the first Notre Dame pitcher in 11 years to twirl a 9-inning complete game that featured double-digit strikeouts without walking a single batter. He also joined a pair of lefthanders – current teammate Wade Korpi (’06) and early 1990s ace Tom Price (’94) – as the only ND pitchers ever to post a double-digit K game twice in the same season at Eck Stadium (which opened in 1994).
Freshman third baseman A.J. Pollock furthered his own case for a top postseason honor, as the BIG EAST rookie-of-the-year candidate went 2-for-4 and scored a pair of runs. Brezovsky did not record a hit but turned in two effective at-bats from the 3-hole, providing an RBI groundout and sacrifice fly to bring home two runs in the tight game.
SHU senior lefthander Corey Young (2-5) – who posted a complete-game win over the Irish in 2006 – again proved to be a formidable foe, scattering five hits and three walks while striking out four in his 7.1 innings. Young gave up a pair of runs at the start of the game but then put up six straight zeroes before the Irish scored an unearned run in the 8th. The SHU veteran’s total pitch count (111) and strike total (72) both nearly matched the numbers turned in by Phelps (107 and 71).
Phelps is back on pace to become the first Notre Dame pitcher since 1990 to finish with a season ERA under 1.60, after entering the week with the nation’s 6th-best ERA among pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched. The staff ace also now owns nearly a 4-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (78/20; 3.9) and dropped his season opponent batting average to .225, with 15 more innings pitched (85.2) than hits allowed (71).
Notre Dame once again opened with a run-scoring sequence in its first trip to the plate, sparked by Young plunking Brett Lilley with a 1-2 pitch. The junior shortstop now has been hit-by-pitch 24 times this season (tied for the national lead) and 75 times in his career, placing him alone in 5th-place among all-time Division I players (he is one HBP out of 4th, six out of 3rd, nine shy of matching the ND record held by former teammate Cody Rizzo and 17 back of tying the top spot in NCAA D-I history).
Pollock followed moments later with one of his patented hit-and-run singles back up the middle, jumping all over an 0-1 pitch to put runners on the corner. Lilley scored on an ensuing wild pitch and Pollock’s hustle to make it to third on that play paid off, as he scored for the 2-0 lead on Brezovsky’s well-executed rightside groundout to the first baseman.
Notre Dame’s ever-growing scoring margin in the 1st inning now stands at 39-23, with the Irish winning two-thirds of the time when scoring at least once in their first trip to the plate (14-7). That success rate climbs even higher – to nearly 82% – when ND scores the game’s first run (now 22-5). All five of the games in which the Irish have lost despite scoring the first run have seen unearned runs provide the ultimate margin of defeat (vs. Texas State, UNC Wilmington, Stetson, Florida Gulf Coast and in the opener of the Cincinnati series).
Phelps – who is both an top All-America and Academic All-America candidate this season (he carrries a 3.36 cumulative GPA, as a double major in political science and computer applications) – sizzled for six different 1-2-3 innings (one with an assist from a pickoff move) 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.
Seton Hall (19-21, 5-11) had multiple baserunners in only the 3rd and 6th innings, with Phelps limiting 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. Mark Pappas led off the 6th with a single to left-center and moved up on Dan Lopez’s sacrifice bunt. Phelps was able to catch leadoff batter Matt Smedberg looking at strike-3 but Mike Young came through with a 2-out, full-count single into right-center (scoring Pappas as SHU’s only run of the night). With the tying run aboard, Phelps bore down and induced a groundball to Lilley to keep the Irish in the lead.
Pollock – who moved into a tie with Lilley atop the team batting charts (.370) – started the bottom of the 8th by laying a bunt single down the third-base line. Just seconds later, he was standing on his familiar hot-corner base after Young’s errant pickoff throw produced a two-base error (the second time in the game that Pollock went from first to third on a SHU miscue). Brezovsky followed with more classic execution from the 3-spot, lifting a sacrifice fly to left-center to restore the two-run cushion (3-1).
Notre Dame head coach Dave Schrage’s emphasis on the importance of minimizing “freebies” – and capitalizing on the opponent’s mistakes – was clearly evidenced in Friday night’s game, as the Irish totaled just one freebie (an error on the first fielding chance of the game) while SHU was guilty of nine freebies (4 walks, 2 hit batters, 2 wild pitches and en error, with no passed balls, balks or stolen bases allowed), which ironically is close to Notre Dame’s season average of freebies per game (9.1). The early hit batter and wild pitch proved costly, helping ND score its first two runs, while the errant pickoff throw later produced the unearned insurance run.
Pollock’s .370 season batting average (which includes an eye-popping .525/21-for-40 vs. LHPs) – would rank 4th-best ever by a Notre Dame freshman (and best in 10 years), trailing only Eric Danapilis (.429, in 1990), Scott Sollmann (.402, in ’94) and Brant Ust (.372, in ’97). The speedy rookie also has totaled eight more walks (25, plus 2 HBPs) than strikeouts (17) this season and is close to having double-digits in both stolen bases (10) and sacrifice bunts (9). His season totals include 25 RBI and 34 runs scored, with improving defense at third base (just 3 Es in the past 11 games, after 16 in his first 33 GP). Pollock also is batting .413 at Eck Stadium and is hitting at nearly a .400 clip overall this season with runners in scoring position (.393).
NOTES – One has to go all the way back to April 30, 1996, to find an ND 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 allowed just three leadoff baserunners to reach and held SHU’s lefthanded batters to an 0-for-11 night … with 10 Ks earlier this season vs. USF, he joins Korpi (11 vs. Western Michigan and Purdue, in ’06) and Price (10 vs. Illinois-Chicago and Indiana State, in ’94) as the only ND pitchers ever to post double-digit Ks at Eck Stadium twice in the same season … he is the ninth overall ND 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) … Thornton – a.k.a. “Tall Tom” – was one of several ND baseball alums who were in attendance Friday night … Phelps is averaging 7.1 innings in his 12 starts, reaching 7.0 innings in eight of the starts (five straight) … he has posted 7-plus Ks six times (including four of his past five starts) … his 9-inning averages include 8.2 Ks, 2.1 walks, 7.5 hits allowed. 9.9 groundouts and 36.8 batters faced (also a rate of 18.1 Ks + GOs per 9 IP, plus a solid 9.6 “WHIP” – walks plus hits per 9.0) … Phelps now is just 22 Ks shy of becoming the fifth ND pitcher to reach 100 Ks in a season … in his four starts without a win this season (vs. Texas State, Sacred Heart, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati), ND totaled just 6 runs while Phelps allowed only 7 earned runs in those four games (plus 5 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 4th-best ERA (2.50) … 10 of the 25 runs charged to Phelps this season have been unearned … his five successful pickoff throws this season is a fairly high total for a RHP … 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 a check back to 1996 (spanning the past 12 seasons), only two ND 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 … freshman DH Ryan Smith (0-for-3) saw his 11-game hit streak end, tying sophomore 2B Jeremy Barnes for longest by an ND player this season … the fielding error on Barnes to start the game was his first E in 10 games … the past three ND head coaches – Pat Murphy (14-12, in ’88), Paul Mainieri (11-10, in ’95) and Dave Schrage (12-14, in ’07) – had challenging starts to their first seasons with the Irish (in pre-April games, they went a combined 37-36/.507, one game over .500) but the 1988 (25-10), 1995 (29-11) and 2007 (14-6) teams now have combined to win nearly 72% of their games in April and May (68-27/.716, for 41 games over .500).
Seton Hall (19-21, 5-11 BIG EAST) 0-0-0 0-0-1 0-0-0 – 1 5 1
Notre Dame (26-20, 9-9 BIG EAST) 2-0-0 0-0-0 0-0-X – 3 5 1
Corey Young (L, 2-5), Dan McDonald (8) and Chris Affinito.
David Phelps (W, 8-3) and Matt Weglarz.
Double: John Walsh (SHU).