BASEBALL: Injuries lead to disappointing weekend
By CHRIS FEDERICO
Assistant Sports Editor
Injuries to four Irish starters led to a difficult series this weekend in the Ron Maestri/University of New Orleans Classic.
The Irish came away with a win in the opener against Missouri on Friday, but then dropped a one-run loss to host New Orleans Saturday, followed by a 6-2 loss to Southern Illinois Sunday morning.
"All of our freshmen and basically all of our position players on this trip got in the game in some capacity due to the injuries we had," assistant coach Dusty Lepper said. "We had quite a few injuries. Three All-Americans are out of our line-up right now, so there are four starting position players injured and out of the lineup."
The Irish played the entire three-game tournament without freshman shortstop Matt Macri and closer Matt Laird. Second baseman Steve Sollmann, last season's Big East Rookie of the Year, was injured during Friday's contest with Missouri. In addition, the Irish played Sunday's contest against Southern Illinois without pre-season All-American Brian Stavisky and third baseman and catcher Andrew Bushey, who had gone 5-for-5 with three RBIs and a home run.
With all of the injuries, much of Notre Dame's top-ranked freshman class saw action early in the year. Freshman pitchers Chris Niesel and Grant
Johnson had successful outings. Infielder Matt Edwards had an impressive showing at shortstop Saturday in place of classmate Macri, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored.
"The young guys answered the call well and were upbeat and positive with the way that they played overall," Lepper said. "We feel that these guys that are stepping in, we have confidence in them."
One of the most impressive performances of the weekend came from Niesel on Sunday. The freshman recorded 10 strikeouts in five innings of work, yielding one run on five hits.
"I thought I did pretty well for my first time out," Niesel said. "I felt really good out there. I thought it was a good first outing for me, and hopefully I can build on it from there."
The Irish jumped out to an early lead Sunday in the third inning with a walk by sophomore Joe Thaman and advanced to third on a double by center fielder Steve Stanley. Sophomore Javier Sanchez, playing for Sollmann, then grounded out to shortstop, allowing Thaman to score. The next batter, Edwards, then singled to left to score Stanley and put the Irish up 2-0.
These two runs would be all the help the Irish pitchers would get, however.
In the fourth inning, Saluki second baseman Greg Andrews led off with a single. Following a Sal Frisella strikeout, designated hitter Scott Hankey doubled in Andrews to move within a run of the Irish. Niesel would then strike out two batters to end the threat.
After a pitching change in the second inning, Irish freshman Martin Vergara struck out Frisella, but then allowed a single to Hankey and walked the next batter. Vergara hit the next two batters to tie the score, then finally got a double play to end the inning.
The seventh inning would prove to be the back-breaker for the Irish as Vergara allowed a pair of lead-off singles, and then Frisella hit a three-run home run to put the Salukis ahead for good.
Southern Illinois added another run in the eighth to make the final score 6-2.
In the opening game Friday, it was the Irish who were forced to make a comeback, falling behind 5-1 after four innings against Missouri. Irish starter Peter Ogilvie was taken out after three innings after giving up four runs, only three of which were earned.
Johnson then came in to make his collegiate debut and worked six innings while allowing only two runs.
In the top of the fifth inning, the Irish began their comeback with a one-out solo homerun from designated hitter Matt Bok.
Thaman then doubled and Sanchez followed with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch to put two runners in scoring position. Stanley got an RBI single, and Sollmann hit a grounder that drove in Sanchez to move the Irish within one run.
The Irish went ahead by one in the next inning when Kris Billmaier scored from third on a balk and pinch hitter Ken Meyer singled in senior Paul O'Toole to give the Irish a 6-5 lead.
In the bottom half of the inning, Missouri's Cody Ehlers tied the score with a solo home run off of Johnson.
In the top of the 10th inning, the Irish went ahead for good with the help of two errors by Missouri that allowed Stavisky to score. Senior Matt Buchmeier saved the game for Johnson in the 10th.
The marquee match-up between Notre Dame and host team New Orleans Saturday afternoon proved to be a back-and-forth battle all day long. In the contest, the Irish got another key pitching performance from a freshman when John Axford threw four innings in relief of senior J.P. Gagne, giving up two runs on three hits, but allowing six walks.
With the Irish down 5-4 and down to their final two outs, Edwards kicked off an Irish comeback with a single to right. Stavisky then tripled in Edwards to tie the game. Notre Dame took the lead on a throwing error on a ground ball hit by Billmaier.
Bushey added another run for the Irish by driving in Billmaier on one of his five hits on the day.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Irish just one out away from an impressive comeback victory, junior Brandon Villoria allowed a pair of singles, and then Privateer first baseman Gabe Trevizo slammed a three-run walk-off homerun to give New Orleans a 8-7 victory.
Even though the Irish dropped two of three games, the staff is still upbeat about the team's play early on.
"As a coaching staff, we were overly upbeat with the way our young guys played overall," Lepper said.
With Notre Dame's next games not until next weekend in Florida at the Homestead Challenge, some of the regular starters should have a chance to heal and get back into action. If their injuries persist, however, the coaches are confident in the abilities of the younger players who filled in during the weekend.
"We're not downplaying their [the younger players'] role at all," Lepper said. "We think they can do the job, and we're going try to go out and try to compete and be successful with those guys."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, February 26, 2002
