April 30, 2002
After waiting for one full day for a shot to get its 14th and 15th BIG EAST Conference victories, the University of Notre Dame softball team (33-13) accomplished its mission with 8-0 and 11-0 victories over Providence (13-35-1, 4-13) on Monday afternoon. The games were previously scheduled for Sunday, but were postponed due to heavy rain.
When the Irish and the Friars finally took the field on Monday, the visiting team would end up putting on a powerful hitting display. Notre Dame entered the game with 36 team home runs, needing just one more to set the new team mark for homers in a season. It didn’t take long for #37 to be put on the board.
Senior Jarrah Myers, who holds the school record for home runs in a career with 34, drilled a three-run homer down the leftfield line in the bottom of the first to put the Irish ahead 3-0.
Notre Dame had been chasing the team home run record during the entire year and with #37 in the record books, the team could sit back and see just how high the team total might go. By the end of the day, seven balls hit off Irish bats left the field for home runs and the team racked up 18 runs in 12 innings.
Among the home runs in the doubleheader for the Irish were Liz Hartmann’s fourth of the year (and fourth of the week) in game one, Lisa Mattison’s second and third of the season in game two (tying the team record for home runs in a game held by six other players), Andrea Loman’s eighth home run, Andria Bledsoe’s seventh home run and Carrie Wisen’s second of the season.
The list of records the Irish have established this season continues to grow. The five home runs in game two against the Friars is a new team record as well.
Putting aside the eye-popping offensive numbers, the Irish pitching staff had a solid day on Monday as well. Steffany Stenglein started both games, working three innings in game one (one hit, four strikeouts) and posting her fifth shutout of the season in game two (5.0 innings, five hits, six strikeouts). Carrie Wisen picked up the victory in game one by pitching the last four innings, surrendering just three hits and striking out six.
Next up for the Irish will be a single game against Oakland on Tuesday, April 30, at 3 p.m.
NOTES: Jarrah Myers continues to pound BIG EAST pitching, going four for five against Providence with five RBI … Megan Ciolli, batting leadoff for the Irish on Monday after Jenny Kriech was unable to play due to a battle with flu symptoms, was four for seven with two runs scored … Kriech was getting better on the ride home, but her status for Tuesday’s game is uncertain … it was a long weekend for the Irish team, the rain out on Sunday forced the team to stay over in a crucial part of the academic season … the Irish face seven games at home over the next six days (Oakland, Tuesday, 3 p.m., DePaul (DH), Thursday, 3 p.m., Rutgers (DH), Friday, 12 p.m., Villanova (DH), Sunday, 11 a.m.) … the Rutgers and Villanova matchups are game that were rescheduled from the weekend of March 23-24.