BASEBALL: Irish crush Cardinals
By BRYAN KRONK
Sports Writer
Call it an all-around good performance.
The Notre Dame baseball team used a combination of solid pitching, timely hitting and some great defensive plays to achieve a decisive win over the Cardinals of Ball State, 10-1.
"It was a great night. All the pitchers we sent out there did a great job," Irish head coach Paul Maineri said. "When you get good pitching and good defense, it gives your hitters the chance to scratch out a few runs."
Notre Dame jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. After Matt Bok lined a single to center, Paul O'Toole was hit by a pitch. The next batter, Andrew Bushey, hit a towering fly that was dropped by the Ball State centerfielder, allowing Bok and O'Toole to score.
After the Cardinals notched a run in the top of the second with back-to-back doubles, the Irish responded with three more runs in the bottom of the inning. Consecutive leadoff singles by Steve Sollmann and Kris Billmaier set up a one-out line-drive home run to right off the bat of Joe Thaman, making the score 5-1 in favor of the Irish.
After two more singles and a walk reloaded the bases, the Irish had a major scoring opportunity wasted when O'Toole grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Then the Irish relief pitching took over.
J.P. Gagne entered the game in the top of the third for the Irish, and pitched four outstanding innings of relief, allowing only two hits and one walk enroute to his third relief win in six days.
The Irish defense faced a major scare in the top of the fifth inning, as third-string shortstop Javier Sanchez, now starting due to injuries to shortstops Matt Macri and Matt Edwards, chased a ball in foul territory along the left field line. The wind took the ball well foul, and Sanchez, still chasing the ball, crashed into the chain-link fence lining the stadium.
While concerned onlookers feared the worst, Maineri said it looked much worse that the actual injury.
"He was hustling after the ball and he plowed into the tarp and his legs gave out, and his chin smacked into the fence," Maineri said. "It was a hustle play, and he plays hard, that kid."
The score remained 5-1 into the bottom of the seventh, when the Irish loaded the bases with a single and two walks.
Bushey came to the plate and smacked a towering fly ball towards left field.
"I hit it up there, and I was like, `Come on wind, catch the ball,'" Bushey said.
The wind did indeed catch the ball, and brought the ball over the left field fence for Bushey's first career grand slam, putting the Irish ahead comfortably, 9-1.
"I thought Andy's at bat in the seventh was really a huge at-bat," Maineri said. "The wind was blowing out [to left field] and we were facing a junkballer. We were playing to pull the ball and he was frustrating us and then Andy goes out and makes an adjustment."
The Irish were able to close out the Cardinals with two more solid innings of relief pitching by Grant Johnson. Johnson allowed only one hit and one walk in his two innings of relief.
The Irish added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth when Thaman led off the inning with a double off the left-field wall. A fly ball to left off the bat of Steve Stanley allowed Thaman to tag to third, and a sacrifice fly by pinch hitter Brent Weiss brought Thaman home to provide the final run of the game.
"[Ball State] has come in here and been a very tough midweek team," Bushey said. "Beating them here tonight was a really good win for us."
The Irish, who have won 14 of their last 16 games, now face their third consecutive Mid-American Conference foe in Toledo today, before a pivotal weekend series against Big East rival Seton Hall.
"We just really want to keep our momentum going into the weekend, so we want to play a really solid nine innings [today] to carry into this weekend's really big series," Bushey said.
Note:
* With his 2-for-5 performance Tuesday, Stanley's season batting average dropped to .474. However, his two hits helped him extend his current hitting streak to 10 games. This marks his third 10-game hitting streak this season and the seventh such streak of his career. During this most recent streak, Stanley is hitting .595.
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, April 17, 2002
