April 22, 2006
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Craig Cooper became the second player in the 12-year Paul Mainieri era to compile a 20-game hit streak and was one of six Notre Dame batters to collect multiple hits, as the 16th-ranked Irish broke open the game with nine runs in the sixth while extending the program’s longest single-season win streak to 21 games with Saturday afternoon’s 15-3 win over Rutgers. The Irish also are riding a 13-game win streak in BIG EAST play and have won 17 straight at Frank Eck Stadium.
Notre Dame (31-8, 13-1 BIG EAST) – which came one shy of matching its season-high totals in runs (16) and hits (17) – had to battle from behind for the seventh straight game but surged to the comfortable win thanks to a clutch-hitting performance that included 8-for-17 batting with runners on base and 8-for-17 with 2-outs. Nine straight Irish batters reached base with 2-outs in the nine-run bottom of the sixth, with two-run singles from Alex Nettey and Danny Dressman and Cody Rizzo’s bases-clearing triple accounting for seven of those clutch RBI.
A win in Sunday’s series finale would give the 2006 team the overall Notre Dame record for winning streak (not limited to a single season), as the 1906 Notre Dame squad won its final four games and the 1907 team started 17-0 for a similar 21-game winning streak (spanning two sesons) nearly 100 years ago.
Notre Dame officials sold 3,221 tickets for the game, second-most in the 13-year history of Eck Stadium behind the 3,507 tickets sold for Friday night’s series opener. The top five attendance numbers in Eck Stadium all have come during the past 16 days (also 3,028 for the Friday-night game vs. Pittsburgh; 3,052 for the Holy Thursday doubleheader with St. John’s; and 3,101 for the Holy Saturday series finale vs. SJU).
Jeff Manship (5-1) overcame the rocky first inning but faced just 22 batters in the next six innings (four over the minimum), staying on course among the top contenders for BIG EAST pitcher-of-the-year honors. The junior righthander registered 19 of his 21 outs via strikeouts (8) or groundouts (11) while posting eight-plus Ks for the sixth time in nine starts this season. Three of the six hits versus Manship came in the first inning, with his seven-inning stint including two walks and 68 of his 103 pitches located for strikes. He allowed just one leadoff batter to reach after the first inning and limited the Rutgers righthanded hitters to 1-for-9 batting while half of his strikeouts came on called third strikes.
Manship’s season totals now include a 2.26 ERA and .200 opponent batting average, with a 4.3 K-to-walk ratio (69/16) and 16 more innings pitched (60) than hits allowed (44). He has allowed just two runs all season in the key 4th-7th innings, for an impressive 0.58 ERA in that four-inning span (2 R in 31 IP).
Notre Dame totaled 27 baserunners in its eight innings at the plate, including seven walks and three hit batters. The Irish offense now is batting at an impressive .364 clip in BIG EAST play and is hitting .325 overall, which would rank fifth-best in the ND record book and second-best in the Mainieri era. Under the guidance of Mainieri and first-year assistant coach Cliff Godwin, the veteran Irish lineup has bounced back from a frustrating 2-5 start to the season that saw the Irish hitters managing just a .240 team batting average.
Cooper’s first 25 games as the leadoff batter this season had seen him reach base an eye-popping 21 times when opening the game for the Irish offense. He then failed to reach in the first inning of four straight games but ended that slump on Saturday with a walk and run scored, later adding two more runs while batting 2-for-2 with another walk and one HBP. The senior first baseman now is batting .427 overall and a lofty .491 in league play, as he pursues an unprecedented third BIG EAST batting title. Cooper now owns a .437 career batting average in BIG EAST games (94-for-215), the second-best mark in the 22-year history of BIG EAST baseball behind former Rutgers player Joe Cirrone (.443).
Mike Amrhein is the only other Mainieri-era player ever to hit safely in 20 consecutive games, compiling a 21-game streak as a senior catcher in the 1997 season. Cooper likely would be riding a 30-game hitting streak if he could have been able to get more than one at-bat in the March 22 game versus Central Michigan, when he finished 0-for-1 with three walks and a sacrifice fly (ending an earlier nine-game hit streak).
Sophomore third baseman and 2-hole Brett Lilley had a four-hit game in Friday’s opener versus RU while the batter behind him in the order followed with four hits in game-2, as junior rightfielder Danny Dressman had a hand in four of the Irish runs during the 15-3 win (2 RBI, 2 R) while batting 4-for-6. Senior centerfielder Alex Nettey added a 3-for-4 day (2 RBI, 2 R) while Cooper and three others – freshman DH Jeremy Barnes (3 RBI, R), senior leftfielder Matt Bransfield (2 RBI, R, 2 BB, 2B) and senior catcher Cody Rizzo (3 RBI, 2 R, 2B) – posted two-hit games.
Notre Dame answered the early runs from Rutgers (17-17-1, 7-7) by scoring in the first inning for the 21st time this season. Cooper earned the five-pitch walk and moved up on Lilley’s sacrifice bunt before coming around to score on a Dressman single to left field and a sacrifice fly down the rightfield line off the bat of Barnes.
The ability to dominate the middle innings has been a key factor in the success level of recent Notre Dame teams and that margin certainly has come to the forefront during the current win streak, as the Irish now have outscored their opponents 89-12 from the 4th-6th innings during the 21-game run. The biggest run differential in the win streak has come in the fourth (33-3), including three runs on Saturday that gave the Irish the lead.
Notre Dame now has faced 12 deficits in the winning streak but 10 of them have lasted just 3.5 innings or shorter and none have spanned more than 4.5 innings.
The go-ahead sequence included Nettey’s leadoff single to the opposite right field, a perfectly-placd bunt single by Rizzo down the third-base line and Cooper beating out a ball that landed just beyond the mound. Lilley’s deep foulout down the leftfield line produced a sacrifice fly and Netter’s slide dislodged the ball, allowing Rizzo to score as the tying run. Dressman’s rightside groundball then was bobbled by the second baseman, with Cooper scoring for the 4-3 lead.
Notre Dame’s nine runs in the sixth matched its most runs in an inning this season – with Cooper’s one-out single through the right side and Lilley’s failed sacrifice bunt (fielder’s choice) making them the only batters to reach with fewer than two outs. Dressman followed with a single to right-center, Barnes pulled an RBI hit through the left side and Bransfield smacked a single to left for the 6-3 lead.
Ross Brezovsky’s full-count walk then ended the day for senior lefthander Matt Pustay (5.2 IP, 9R/8 ER, 9 H,4 BB, 3 Ks) but the hits kept on coming versus junior RHP Matt Lampariello and senior LHP Joe Baione. Nettey delivered on an 0-2 count with a two-run single to left and Greg Lopez was hit by the next pitch before Rizzo ripped a 1-1 pitch into the left-center gap for a three-run double. Lampariello’s final pitch plunked Cooper and Bainoe then walked Lilley, with Dressman’s second single of the inning (opposite field, to left-center) plating two more runs for the 13-3 cushion.
It marked the eighth time in the win streak that the Irish have posted a “big inning” (five-plus runs), including nine runs in the fourth inning of the 15-1 win over Oakland in April 11.
NOTES – Led by the heavy-hitting Amrhein, ND’s 1997 team tied the program record for season batting avg. (.334, also in ’89 and ’93) … the only other ND team to hit at a higher clip than the current squad’s .325 was the 1980 team (.332) … the Irish are hitting .353 in the win streak, led by Cooper (.480), Lilley (.458), Lopez (.433) and Dressman (.400) … the Irish pitchers own a 2.61 ERA during the win streak, holding the opponents to .220 batting (the ND defense has totaled just 22 errors in the streak, with a .973 fielding pct.) … the overall staff ERA stands at 3.16 … ND has not made an error in the series and has totaled just 43 errors (the .972 season fielding pct. would tie the team record) … ND and Rutgers actually had totaled the same number of runs (194) in 34 games of the all-time series prior to the 2006 matchups that have yielded a 26-8 scoring edge for the Irish … the 15-3 game was the eighth blowout win (8-plus runs) in the history of the ND-RU series (3 by ND) … the Irish now hold a 22-14 lead in the series … ND’s talented 2001 team – fronted by ace pitchers Aaron Heilman and Danny Tamayo – is the only team in 22 seasons of BIG EAST baseball that has compiled more consecutive wins in league play (18).
Rutgers (17-17-1, 7-7 BIG EAST) 3-0-0 0-0-0 0-0-0 – 3 6 1
#16 Notre Dame (31-8, 13-1 BIG EAST) 1-0-0 3-0-9 0-2-X – 15 16 0
Matt Pustay (L, 2-4), Mark Lampariello (6), Joe Baione (7), Tony Wargo (8) and Frank Meade.
Jeff Manship (W, 5-1), Joey Williamson (8),Mike Dury (9) and Cody Rizzo.
Doubles: Matt Bransfield (ND), Cody Rizzo (ND), Jeff Grose (RU), Steve Hook (RU).