NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The 12th-ranked Notre Dame baseball team is gearing up for one of the biggest regular season matchups in Frank Eck Stadium history. The Irish (10-3, 9-3 ACC) are set to begin a three-game with the sixth-ranked Louisville Cardinals (15-5, 7-2 ACC) Friday afternoon. It is set to be the first ever three-game series between Top-15 teams in Frank Eck Stadium as the two top teams in the Atlantic Division square off with first place on the line this weekend.
Home Sweet Home
- The Irish are currently in the midst of a long stretch of games at home after not playing a home game since 2019 until the most recent series against Duke.
- The weekend series with Louisville will conclude the seven game home stand for the Irish but they will not be gone for long.
- With a quick trip to Pitt mixed in, 10 of the next 13 games for the Irish will be from the friendly confines of Frank Eck Stadium.
- The Irish will welcome Louisville to town this weekend as a battle of Top-15 teams will take place for the first time in a three-game series in Frack Eck Stadium history.
- The last time a Top-20 matchup happened at Eck was a two-game midweek series between the No. 8 Irish and No. 20 Central Florida back in May of 2004.
- Current assistant coach Rich Wallace was a volunteer assistant on the Golden Knights staff back in 2004. The Irish opened the series with a 4-0 win off the back of Jeff Samardzija on Tuesday before clinching the series with a 3-2 win on Wednesday.
- Louisville enters the weekend ranked as high as No. 6 in the polls and carries a 15-5 overall record and 7-2 mark in the ACC.
- The Cardinals are coming off a midweek win over Eastern Kentucky and swept their previous ACC series last weekend on the road at NC State.
Kavadas Krushes Valpo
- Senior slugger Niko Kavadas has been on a tear to begin the season and it continued in the midweek matchup against Valpo.
- He opened the scoring in the fourth inning with a solo blast on the first pitch of the inning to put the Irish up 1-0.
- Then in the seventh inning, he took the first pitch of the inning the other way once again for another solo shot to extend the Irish lead.
- It was his second multi-home run game of the season and third of his career as he upped his season total to nine home runs in just 13 games.
- Kavadas moved into a tie for eighth all-time for most home runs in their Irish career with Joe Binkiewicz and Brian Stavisky.
- The Irish pitching staff pieced together the midweek win as five pitchers were used on the night.
- Will Mercer and Liam Simon combined for the final five innings and did not allow a run while limiting Valpo to just two hits.
- Mercer tied a career high with five strikeouts to collect the win and Simon pitched the final two innings for the save.
- On the night, the Irish pitching staff tallied 16 strikeouts, the most in a game since May 11, 2019 when they had 17 against Canisius.
Bertrand Bullies Blue Devils
- On Saturday, the home run hitting duo of Niko Kavadas and Ryan Cole were at it again after the Irish fell behind 2-1 in the sixth inning.
- Kavadas belted a three-run homer to left to regain the lead for the Irish.
- Later in the inning, Cole tallied an inside the park home run to put the game out of reach. It was the first inside the park home run for the Irish since 2017.
- John Michael Bertrand went the distance on Saturday for his second career complete game.
- After his lone mistake of the game in the sixth inning, he allowed just two hits the rest of the way to earn his third win of the season.
- He finished the game with six strikeouts, five hits allowed and the two runs. He is one of just two ACC pitchers to toss a complete game this year.
- With the series win, the Irish have won their fourth-straight series to begin the season and they are the only ACC team to win each of their conference series this season.
- The Irish have won five straight ACC series dating back to the 2020 season for the first time since joining the conference. It is the first time they have won five straight conference series since 2005-06 when the Irish won seven-straight conference series spanning between the two seasons.
- The Irish finished the series without committing an error for the second time this season. They ranked first in the ACC and third nationally with a fielding percentage of 0.994 as they have only committed three errors in 12 games.
Homers Help Irish Over Duke
- In their first home game in 677 days, the long ball helped the Irish edge past the Blue Devils.
- Trailing by two in the sixth inning, Niko Kavadas hit his sixth home run of the season to tie the game at 4-4.
- That was all the offense for either team until the 13th inning as both bullpens were up to the task.
- The duo of Joe Sheridan and Tanner Kohlhepp stymied the Duke batters over 9.1 innings of work.
- The pair did not allow a run or a walk over 28 outs to keep the Irish in the game.
- In the 13th, Ryan Cole smashed his first career home run over the wall in left to give the Irish a 6-4 win.
- It was the first walk off home run for the Irish since David LaManna in the 4-2 win over Purdue back in 2018.
- Kohlhepp tied a career high with four strikeouts as he picked up his first win in an Irish uniform.
FRANK ECK STADIUM ATTENDANCE POLICY
2021 Baseball Media Credentials Info
The University of Notre Dame, in accordance with campus health and safety protocols and with the guidance of local health officials, will limit attendance for sports competing this spring to guests of competing Notre Dame student-athletes and coaches as well as current Notre Dame, Holy Cross and St. Mary’s College students. Students will be expected to show a current I.D. and physically distanced seating will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Additional student attendance policies can be found here.
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