BASEBALL: Irish escape with 9-8 win, Porzel reaches 30/30 plateau
By CHRIS FEDERICO
Sports Writer
For a day that was supposed to be a routine mid-week game to prepare for the two upcoming Big East series games, the baseball team experienced a great deal of drama Wednesday afternoon in a 9-8 victory over the Detroit Titans.
The Irish surged to an early 9-1 lead, and then held off a late fight from the Titans in the eighth and ninth innings to escape with the victory.
Earlier in the game, the sparse crowd of 125 enthusiastic fans was treated to a bit of history as senior shortstop and co-captain Alec Porzel became the first Notre Dame player ever to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a career. The feat earned him the rare title of a "30/30 man."
The senior leader remained modest about his accomplishment after the game.
"I think the most important thing was getting the victory and allowing the guys that don't play that much to get some experience," said Porzel. "These are guys we're going to count on down the road and in the post-season. The 30/30 distinction really didn't mean that much to me — it just shows I've been around a while."
The Irish got on the board in their first at-bat when Steve Sollmann, 3-4 on the day at the plate, singled up the middle. Porzel then advanced Sollmann to third with a single of his own, taking second on the throw to third.
Matt Bok, playing right field so sophomore Brian Stavisky could rest a sore hamstring for the Big East series, brought Sollmann in with a sacrifice fly to center. Kris Billmaier then improved on his .316 average with runners in scoring position by knocking in Porzel with a single.
Notre Dame added four more runs in the fourth, starting with Billmaier's leadoff walk. After junior Andrew Bushey singled, first baseman Mike Holba hit a single that brought in Billmaier. Center fielder Steve Stanley and the freshman Sollmann would then both add RBI singles to open the Irish lead to 6-1.
Porzel's record-setting homer, his first of the season, came in the seventh inning and followed a leadoff double from Stanley and another single from Sollmann. The two-run shot moved the lead to 9-1.
Starting pitcher Ryan Kalita had a strong performance, giving five solid innings allowing only one run on three hits. He gave way to freshman Brian Kaplan in the sixth inning, exiting with a 6-1 lead.
"I thought Ryan threw pretty well for us today," said coach Paul Mainieri.
"The plan was for him to go out and give five good innings like he did. I just wanted to give Kaplan some innings to see what he could do for us."
After Porzel's blast expanded the lead, Mainieri had removed all but one of his starters to give the younger guys some playing time. This was when Detroit made their move.
Having already shown some control problems in the sixth and seventh innings, Kaplan gave up four hits in the eighth and also had an error on a ball hit back to him. Another freshman, Nick Colagiovanni, came in on relief and walked in one run before getting three straight ground balls to end the inning.
"Brian had some trouble throwing strikes," said Mainieri. "He fell behind some of the batters and gave up a few walks. He was able to get out of a couple of jams, but it caught up to him in the eighth. But you can only find out about guys by putting them in the games, and I wanted to see Brian pitch."
Notre Dame took a 9-6 lead into the final inning but again ran into some trouble with one out and runners on second and third. Mainieri brought in Matt Laird, his closer, to end the game, but he gave up a two-run single after going to a full count on the hitter.
Two wild pitches from Laird then moved he tying run all the way to third base, but he would advance no further as Laird knuckled down and got Detroit pinch hitter Tim Andrzejak to ground out to short.
Just as in the 11-inning win at Rutgers, Laird found himself in a tough situation with the game on the line, but he battled through the pressure.
"I just try to get the first strike on guys and get ahead of them to make them hit my pitch when I get in those situations," said the sophomore Laird who picked up his team-leading fourth save.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, April 12, 2001
