BASEBALL: Irish return to South Bend after weekend split
By JEFF BALTRUZAK
Sports Writer
Weather wise, it's a shame that a team goes down to Florida to play a tournament and has to come back to South Bend.
Notre Dame took their No. 10 ranking and five game winning streak on the road in the Devil Rays College Invitational in St. Petersburg. The Irish left the sun and came back to the snow having chalked up a win over Florida Atlantic University on Friday and a loss to South Florida on Saturday. Sunday's game against Western Michigan was rained out.
"I think we were disappointed we couldn't get a sweep of the weekend," said Saturday's starter Daniel Tamayo. "It's a baseball thing — you have to lose sometime."
All-American Aaron Heilman took the hill Friday against a Florida Atlantic squad that would only get five hits against the senior Irish righthander.
Heilman worked a full nine-inning shutout, striking out nine while leading the Irish to a 3-0 victory.
The middle of the order would supply Heilman with some run support starting in the fourth, manufacturing two runs on singles by centerfielder Steve Stanley and shortstop Alec Porzel, and RBI singles by catcher Paul O'Toole and leftfielder Kris Billmaier.
Heilman would face his only jam of the game in the next inning, when Florida Atlantic put runners on first and third with no outs.
But Heilman kept the ball down in the zone as he did all day, and got Dean Devine of the Owls to hit into a double play. Heilman retired Rob Orton on a foul popup down the third base line to close out Florida Atlantic's at-bat.
The third Irish run would come by way of singles as well, as Joe Thaman singled in the seventh. Designated hitter Ken Meyer then advanced Thaman to third on a hit-and-run to rightfield. Thaman was able to score when a pitch got past Orton later in the inning.
"Really two factors contributed to us playing small ball with singles and advancing the runners," said Tamayo. "We were missing Brian Stavisky, our big power guy."
"Also, the park was a major league spring training park. The wind was blowing in all weekend, and we weren't going to try to hit the ball over anyone's head."
Heilman dropped his season ERA to a superhuman 0.86 and ran his season record to 3-0 with the shutout victory.
Outstanding starting pitching by Tamayo was not enough to power the Irish past South Florida on Saturday. The Irish only mustered five hits against senior John Vique, who threw just 95 pitches in a complete game.
"I used my curveball more that game than earlier games," said Tamayo. "My change-up was my most effective pitch consistently."
South Florida struck early, grabbing a 1-0 lead in the second when Daniel Boyd doubled and Ben Drawdys singled up the middle for the Bulls.
The game would stay at 1-0 for the next 4 1/2 stanzas. Notre Dame briefly threatened with two runners on and no outs in the fourth. But Porzel flied out, and O'Toole grounded into a double play to end the inning for the Irish.
Steve Sollmanns lead off to set the Irish up to score in the seventh. The freshman laid a bunt down the third base line. Porzel then launched a fly ball to leftfield, but Boyd lost the ball in the stadium lights. O'Toole then walked, setting up Joe Thaman's fly out that advanced Porzel to third and Sollmanns across the plate.
Notre Dame would not score for the rest of the game, and would allow South Florida to break out for five runs before the game was over.
The deluge started in the top half of the eighth, when sophomore righthander J.P. Gagne was brought in to relieve Tamayo. Mike Macaluso of the Bulls reached when his popup fell between Gagne and third baseman Ben Cooke, and a then a bunt and a single by Myron Leslie to score Macaluso.
Mike Eylward singled home another run and the Irish found themselves down two runs 3-1 with just six outs left.
Leslie sparked South Florida to three more runs in the ninth with a double.
Gagne (0-1) was charged with the loss, while Tamayo received a no-decision.
The Irish were able to bring just 31 batters to the plate in the loss, just four over the 27 minimum.
"Even though we were disappointed, we have a sense that we haven't lost anything as a team," said Tamayo.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, March 6, 2001
