Irish set to take on Big East rivals
By JEFF BALTRUZAK
Assistant Sports Editor
The last time the Notre Dame baseball team started their season this well, Roosevelt was president — Teddy Roosevelt.
The Irish, at 14-2-1, are experiencing their best start since 1908, when the baseball team opened at 16-1. Behind outstanding pitching and a lineup that can manufacture runs effectively, Notre Dame will surge into Big East competition this weekend with a Friday doubleheader at Pittsburgh and a Saturday twin bill with the Hokies of Virginia Tech at Blacksburg, Va.
The Irish are fresh off a 3-0 shutout of Cleveland State in their home opener Wednesday at Frank Eck Stadium, a game that saw sophomore starter Peter Ogilive scatter three hits in seven innings of work, with fellow sophomore Matt Laird securing his third save of the season.
Leftfielder Kris Billmaier provided Ogilive with plenty of run support, smacking two hits for 2 RBIs and adding a stolen base.
The Cleveland State win came on the heels of a successful California road swing over spring break, where the Irish went 7-0-1 en route to winning the Pepsi/Johnny Quik Classic in Fresno.
Through their first 17 games of the season, the Irish have shown to have a deadly strategy — pitching and fielding that simply do not allow runs combined with an offense that can rally from any point in the batting order.
As for pitching, the Irish staff is the proud owner of a 2.66 overall ERA, spearheaded by senior starters Aaron Heilman and Danny Tamayo.
"I always knew Aaron and Danny would be our No. 1 and 2 starters, we just had to wait to their senior season to do it," said Mainieri with a laugh, refering to Tamayo's absence from the mound due to injury the past two seasons.
At the plate, Notre Dame has shown that it will walk, single, steal bases, get hit by pitches, execute hit and runs — anything to advance runners and score runs.
The order lacks holes, with freshman Steve Sollmann leading the team in batting average from the ninth spot, and leftfielder Kris Billmaier is tied with Brian Stavisky for the team lead in RBIs while hitting sixth.
Meanwhile, the trio of Sollmann, Stavisky, and junior leadoff hitter Steve Stanley has declared war on the competition, terrorizing opposing pitchers with a combined .394 batting average.
Pittsburgh is coming off a split with Ohio, a series that ran their record to 9-5, 2-1 in Big East play. The Panthers are a power team, with 15 home runs as compared to Notre Dame's eight, but Pittsburgh's pitchers have a staff ERA of 5.54 through the first 14 games of the season.
Virginia Tech completed a three game sweep with Boston College on Monday, improving their record to a 10-8 mark. The Hokies are led offensively by John West's .418 average, with three home runs and 12 runs batted in.
All Sports Stories for Friday, March 23, 2001
