SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish (29-19) completed the sweep over the Akron Zips (18-33) in the final home series of the year at Frank Eck, winning Sunday’s contest 2-1 in abnormal fashion.
HOW IT HAPPENED
It was a scoreless game through the first five innings, and the Irish had a collection of pitchers take the mound in the opening frames. Jackson Dennies got the start and went 2.0 innings, Justin Moore stepped in for another 2.2 scoreless innings, and Carter Bosch took to the mound for 1.1. Akron got to Bosch in the sixth, as he surrendered a pair of hits and a run to give the Zips a 1-0 lead.
Notre Dame remained runless until the eighth inning and got on the board with a Zach Prajzner home run to deep left field. Radek Birkholz pitched three scoreless innings to give Notre Dame the chance to get the walk-off win. The Irish delivered.
With Sammy Tortorella on the mound, Brady Gumpf singled, Nick DeMarco walked, and Estevan Moreno also singled. TJ Williams stepped up to the plate and was hit by a pitch to score the final run.
Birkholz earned the win (2-3), while Tortorella (4-4) took the loss.
UP NEXT
The Irish will play at Wrigley Field for the first time in program history on Tuesday before heading to Boston College for a three-game series. Notre Dame will also play at Fenway Park on Friday for Boston College’s 11th annual ALS Awareness Game.
Notre Dame is 77-60-1 all-time against Northwestern, including a 3-2 neutral site record. Tickets for the 5 p.m. CDT clash are on sale here.