March 14, 2006

The pitching matchups for the upcoming Irish Baseball Classic have begun to take shape, with Notre Dame set to send junior righthander Jeff Samardzija to the mound on Thursday, March 16, as the Irish take on Iowa looking for their fifth straight win. Other probable Notre Dame starters at the IBC include junior RHP Jeff Manship (March 17, vs. Southern Illinois), freshman RHP David Phelps (March 17, vs. Iowa) and senior LHP Tom Thornton (March 18, vs. SIU).

Notre Dame takes a 6-5 record into the tournament while Iowa is 5-5 and SIU is 13-5. The Irish are playing host to tournament action in San Antonio for the 10th time in the 12-year Paul Mainieri era (all but 2000 and ’03), winning 75% of the games in the previous nine ND-hosted San Antonio tournaments (21-7).

All games will be played at Wolff Stadium, home of the San Antonio Missions (currently the Seattle Mariners double-A affiliate).

Here are the probable pitching matchups for the Irish Baseball Classic:

Wed., March 15 (4:00 p.m. central) – Iowa freshman RHP Wes Freie (2.70, 0-0, 0 Ks, 0 BB, 3.1 IP, 4 H/.286 opp. avg., 2 GP/0 GS) vs. SIU junior RHP Jordan Powell (4.55, 3-2, 15 Ks, 9 BB, 29.2 IP, 41 H/.323, 5 GS)

Thur., March 16
(noon) – ND junior RHP Jeff Samardzija (4.11, 1-1, 6 Ks, 9 BB, 15.1 IP, 14 H/.250, 3 GS) vs. Iowa (TBA)

(4:00) – SIU freshman RHP Cody Adams (6.75, 1-1, 17 Ks, 9 BB, 18.2 IP, 30 H/.326, 5 GP/4 GS) vs. Iowa (TBA)

Fri., March 17
(1:30) – ND junior RHP Jeff Manship (2.12, 1-0, 24 Ks, 4 BB, 17.0 IP, 9 H/.153, 3 GS) vs. SIU senior LHP Adam Snyder (3.12, 3-0, 14 Ks, 4 BB, 26.0 IP, 30 H/.306, 8 GP/2 GS)

(5:30) – ND freshman RHP David Phelps (4.15, 1-0, 5 Ks, 1 BB, 4.1 IP, 6 H/.316, 3 GP/0 GS) vs. Iowa (TBA)

Sat., March 18 (1:30) – ND senior LHP Tom Thornton (4.76, 2-1, 14 Ks, 1 BB, 17.0 IP, 20 H/.299, 3 GS) vs. SIU senior RHP Matt Brewer (2.61, 0-0, 9 Ks, 1 BB, 10.1 IP, 9 H/.225, 5 GP/0 GS)