Irish sweep Pirates, grab first place tie
By CHRIS FEDERICO
Sports Editor
The Irish baseball team enjoyed quite possibly its best performance of the season this weekend as it claimed a three-game sweep of conference rival Seton Hall. The two teams entered the critical series tied for second place in the league.
With the three wins, the Irish improved to 27-12 and 11-6 in the Big East while moving into a three-way tie for the conference lead with Virginia Tech and Boston College.
"This was the best weekend we've had so far," center fielder Steve Stanley said. "We played as a team. The pitching continued to be great, and our hitting was really coming along."
The games were reminiscent of the Irish style of play last season, when Notre Dame would regularly get dominating pitching performances from graduated starting pitchers Aaron Heilman and Danny Tamayo and the offense would provide enough support for the victory.
"We don't have, right now, as dominant as a pitching staff as we did last year," Stanley said. "We've gone out each inning and have been mentally prepared to score nine or 10 runs if that's what it's going to take. I think our offense has really stepped up, and we've done a better job than we have in the past couple of years."
In each game, the Irish enjoyed dominating outings from starters John Axford, Pete Ogilvie and Grant Johnson. Each of the three pitchers earned a win for their work, and none even trailed in a ball game after the second inning.
In the opener Saturday, rains delayed the start 2 hours and 50 minutes, allowing only one game to be played and pushing the doubleheader to Tuesday.
After falling behind 1-0, Irish catcher Paul O'Toole blasted a solo home run in the second inning to tie the game.
Following a leadoff walk from Stanley in the fifth inning, left fielder Brian Stavisky hit an RBI single to put the Irish up 2-1, a lead they would never relinquish.
After adding an insurance run in the sixth, Notre Dame scored four more in the seventh on a grand slam from O'Toole. The homer was the second of the day for O'Toole, who had also hit a grand slam in the previous game against Toledo Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the freshman pitcher Axford had cruised through six more solid innings of work after allowing a run in the first inning. In the eighth, however, the youngster ran into some trouble by allowing a pair of leadoff hits, and then yielding two more walks with two outs.
Senior J.P. Gagne came in to relieve Axford, and allowed a two-run double to first baseman Tim Pahuta to narrow the Irish lead to 8-4. Gagne got the next batter to strikeout, however, to end the threat.
The Irish added one more run in the bottom of the eighth for the final of 9-4.
Notre Dame got on the board first Saturday with two runs in the top of the first after a lead-off single from Stanley and an RBI triple from Stavisky. Second baseman Steve Sollmann, who was 5-for-7 on the day, then singled in Stavisky for an RBI and the 2-0 lead.
After getting a run back in their half of the first, the Pirates tied the game at 2-2 in the third when first baseman Todd Crawford slapped an RBI single to left field that scored Anthony Seratelli.
The Irish went ahead in the next inning on a sacrifice fly from shortstop Javier Sanchez that scored O'Toole from third.
Notre Dame ended an insurance run in the sixth when Sollmann singled and then stole second. Right fielder Kris Billmaier then singled in Sollmann for the 4-2 victory.
In the final game of the series Sunday, the junior right-hander Ogilvie pitched a gem of a ballgame, holding Seton Hall scoreless for seven innings before yielding an unearned run in the eighth. Ogilvie finished with eight strikeouts and five hits over his eight innings before yielding to Brandon Viloria for the final inning.
It took five innings for either team to score, before the Irish got on the board in the sixth when senior third baseman Andrew Bushey smacked a single that scored Stavisky from second.
Notre Dame added three more in the eighth when Stanley and Sollmann lead off with a pair of singles followed by Stavisky's RBI single, capping off a 4-for-9 day for the preseason All-American, who had a triple and a home run to go with his two singles. Alfter playing through a couple of injuries this season, Stavisky is settling back into his familiar form on the roster.
"I was injured right at the beginning of the year, and came back for a few games, but got injured again," Stavisky said. "I finally feel like I'm settling in to mid-season form."
Billmaier then squeezed in Sollmann with a bunt, and O'Toole added a single up the middle to score Stavisky for the 4-0 lead.
The Irish added two more runs with two outs in the ninth on hits again from Stanley, Sollmann and Stavisky.
The Irish get a break from Big East play this week, but are by no means in any position to relax. The team has a pair of mid-week games against Chicago State and Bowling Green Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
Later this weekend, the Irish will play host to Pac-10 powerhouse Arizona State. The Sun Devils are ranked as high as 14th in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll and are coached by former Irish head coach Pat Murphy.
"We feel very excited about these games coming up," Stavisky said. "We have a matchup between the previous coach and our current coach, and Arizona State is a national name every year in college baseball. To get to play them in our park with our fans is going to be very exciting."
The game today against Chicago State will begin at 6:05 at Frank Eck Stadium.
Notes:
Senior Irish co-captain Steve Stanley set two more career records in play this weekend. The four-year starter became the Big East career leader in runs scored with 98 by surpassing Rutgers' David DeJesus, who held the previous record at 93. Stanley also became the career leader in hits in the Big East with his 4-for-9 day Sunday, moving to 141 career hits and passing Darren Fenster, also of Rutgers.
Contact Chris Federico at cfederic@nd.edu.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, April 23, 2002
