April 25, 2001
The Notre Dame softball pitching staff has been building toward this kind of performance all season. As the team has swept through 13 consecutive doubleheaders, its two pitching stars, senior Jen Sharron (Agoura Hills, Calif.) and Kristin Schmidt (Houston, Texas), have been inching closer to perfection. That goal is once again a little closer after today’s 11-0 and 1-0 sweep of Toledo at Ivy Field.
Sharron and Schmidt combined to surrender just one hit, a single in the fourth inning of the first game, to the visiting Rockets. Thirteen innings pitched, just one hit allowed for the two Irish aces who helped the team ERA drop to a minuscule 0.88.
Who would think that Sharron’s six-inning, one-hit gem in the first game could be overshadowed at the end of the day? Schmidt took the mound in the second game and wielded her arsenal of pitches like a veteran, not a freshman making just her 21st collegiate start.
She would end up just one walk away from a perfect game, sitting down 15 Rocket batters, including the last nine she faced. Just how dominating was the performance? The scoreboard flashed three balls in a Toledo batter’s count just twice – when Schmidt issued a 3-2 walk to Kalika Stavroulakis in the fourth and when Danielle D’Amore flied out on a 3-1 count in the third.
After Schmidt walked Stavroulakis, she would throw just three non-strike pitches the rest of the game and strike out the last nine batters of the game.
As Schmidt kept the game in cruise control from the pitcher’s circle, the Irish offense fell asleep after pounding out 10 hits in the first game. It would eventually be the bottom of the batting order to come through for the winning run in the second game. With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Andria Bledsoe (Higley, Ariz.), hitting in the seventh position in the lineup, singled up the middle. Lisa Mattison (Granger, Ind.) followed with a single to rightfield. Mattison’s two hits in the game raised her season average to .302, as she becomes the eighth Irish batter to currently boast a batting average over .300.
Kas Hoag (Wallingford, Conn.), inserted as a pinch runner for Bledsoe, moved to third on Mattison’s single. Alexis Madrid (Temecula, Calif.), coming off a two-for-two performance against Illinois-Chicago yesterday, wiggled an RBI single up the middle on a 2-2 pitch to provide the winning run.
The second game was a stark contrast to the Irish offensive output in the first game. In similar fashion to its three-run first inning output against UIC yesterday, Notre Dame put up four runs in the first inning of game one. Jenny Kriech (Indianapolis, Ind.) led off with a walk and stole second base. Danielle Klayman (San Diego, Calif.) reached on a fielding error by Toledo first base Crystal Shank that allowed Kriech to score.
After Melanie Alkire (Union City, Calif.) popped up for the first out of the inning, Jarrah Myers (who finished three-for-three in the first game) singled up the middle and advanced Klayman to third. Lizzy Lemire (Irvine, Calif.) stepped in next and was hit by a 0-2 pitch to load the bases.
Hard-hitting Andrea Loman (Riverside, Calif.) came through with a sacrifice fly to plate Klayman and Notre Dame’s second run of the inning. Bledsoe then drew a four-pitch walk and Jen Sharron suddenly had the ability to help her pitching cause with the bases loaded. The Irish lefty came through with a two-RBI single to leftfield and give herself a four-run cushion.
Notre Dame’s thunderous bats continued to bash the ball in the second inning. Kriech flied out to the warning track in deep centerfield, but Klayman followed with a double into the left-center gap. After Alkire popped out, Myers smacked her sixth home run of the season well over the leftfield fence.
The hit parade continued – Lemire stroked a triple to rightfield, followed by a Loman RBI single. Toledo starting pitcher Tracy Riepenhoff escaped further damage when she knocked down a Bledsoe liner right back to her and throw out the Irish third base to end the inning.
Toledo switched to Kristy Kassotis in the bottom of the third and the right hander seemed to keep the Irish batters guessing for three innings. Nicole deFau (Southington, Conn.) was able to muster a single in the fifth inning, but Kassotis kept the Irish off the scoreboard until the bottom of the sixth.
Klayman drew a walk and Alkire reached on a throwing error by Kassotis on her sacrifice bunt attempt. Chantal DeAlcuaz (Modesto, Calif.) then drew a four-pitch walk to bring up Lemire with the bases loaded. After working to a 2-1 count, Lemire blasted her first career grand slam to end the game on the softball eight-run rule.
Notre Dame returns to BIG EAST action this weekend against Boston College on Saturday (11 a.m.) and Providence on Sunday (11 a.m.) at Ivy Field.