May 21, 2004
#25 Notre Dame vs. #6 Michigan Pregame Notes
NCAA Region VI Tournament – Ann Arbor, Mich.
Notre Dame – Michigan series notes:
Notre Dame and Michigan will be meeting for the 11th time this afternoon … Michigan leads the all-time series 3-7, including a 3-0 loss to the Wolverines at the Florida State Invitational on March 12 … Jennie Ritter tossed a no-hitter against the Irish in the March 12 meeting this season, striking out nine batters and coming just a hit by pitch away from a perfect game … Notre Dame and Michigan have met four times in the NCAA Championship, will all previous meetings occurring in Ann Arbor –
5-20-95: Notre Dame 0, Michigan 1 5-21-95: Notre Dame 6, Michigan 15 5-21-99: Notre Dame 1, Michigan 0 5-17-03: Notre Dame 3, Michigan 5
Liz Hartmann hit a three-run home run in last season’s meeting in the NCAA regional.
NFCA Mideast All-Region Teams:
The NFCA has released its selections for the all-region teams in 2004 and the Irish are represented by four players, including first-team selection Megan Ciolli … Ciolli (.402 batting average, 23 RBI, 20 SB) lands on the first team for the third-straight season and automatically qualifies for All-America honors … pitchers Steffany Stenglein and Heather Booth, along with first baseman Meagan Ruthrauff were named to the second team … it is Ruthrauff’s second-straight selection to the second team, while Booth and Stenglein earned their first all-region honors.
Notre Dame season note updates:
Sophomore Heather Booth increased her school record for complete games in a season to 29 in yesterday’s victory over DePaul … junior Megan Ciolli has moved into a tie with Katie Marten (’95) for the school single-season record in stolen bases, stealing her 20th against DePaul on Thursday … Ciolli is 20-23 in stolen bases this season … with three hits against DePaul on Thursday, Ciolli moved her batting average back over .400 this season, as she looks to become just the third Notre Dame player to finish the season with a batting average over .400 (Meghan Murray .422 in ’97 and .402 in ’96, Andrea Loman .402 last season) … Notre Dame’s 49 victories this season are the second-best in school history, behind the 54 wins posted in 2001 … the Irish have won five-straight NCAA regional first round games dating back to 2000.