Baseball: Three-way tie for first leaves Irish in control
By: CHRIS FEDERICO
Sports Editor
Heading into the final Big East weekend of the regular season, the Notre Dame baseball team is in complete control of its own destiny regarding the postseason.
The Irish currently stand in a three-way tie for the Big East lead with Virginia Tech and this weekend's opponent, Boston College. The Irish can take care of the Eagles by winning the weekend series. They also hold the tie-breaker advantage over the Hokies if the two teams finish the season with the same conference record.
"It's nice to be in that situation at the end of the year," centerfielder Steve Stanley said. "I think these will be the three biggest games of the year for us like we've said all along."
The Irish only need to win one of the three games against Boston College this weekend to be assured of a spot in the four-team conference tournament. A three-game sweep would guarantee them the regular season Big East title and the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
Winning the regular season title and the Big East Tournament could be very important for Notre Dame's hopes of hosting its second consecutive NCAA Regional at Frank Eck Stadium.
"For us to host a regional, we have to win the regular season Big East title," Stanley said. "That's a prerequisite — we have to do that. I think this year we even have to win the Big East Tournament, so there are some things we haven't accomplished yet. But right now we can't even think about hosting a regional because we don't even know if we're in one."
In their last Big East matchup, the Irish traveled to Villanova and came away with two wins from the three-game series.
The Irish stumbled a little in the opening game Saturday, blowing a 7-5 lead in the bottom of the seventh to allow the Wildcats to tie. In the next inning, pitcher J. P. Gagne gave up three straight singles to Villanova batters to allow the go-ahead run to cross the plate in the Wildcat 8-7 victory.
In the doubleheader Sunday, Irish bats exploded for five home runs, including two from sophomore first baseman Joe Thaman, as Notre Dame knocked off the Wildcats 8-1 and 9-5.
The first game saw dominant pitching performances from freshmen John Axford, who picked up the win going 4.2 innings and allowing one run, and Chris Niesel, who contributed 2.1 innings of hitless relief. Niesel made his return to the mound after a month-long absence due to mononucleosis.
"Niesel was outstanding," Irish coach Paul Mainieri said. "During the week we let him do some side work, and he looked very good and felt good. The ideal situation would have been to put him in for two innings with a nice lead. But Axford ran into a bit of trouble in the fifth inning and loaded the bases. So we had to bring in Chris with bases loaded and two outs in his first game back. But he did very well, and I think he struck out four in a row at one point."
In the concluding game, second baseman Steve Sollmann went 3-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored in leading the nine-run Irish attack.
Junior Peter Ogilvie started the game and gave a solid 6.2 inning, four-run outing before yielding to relief help. After a stint by junior Brandon Viloria, Gagne was called upon from the bullpen after the difficult outing the previous day. The junior right-hander entered the game with runners on first and third and two out, but got the first batter to strike out to escape from the inning.
Gagne stayed in the game and pitched two scoreless innings with four strikeouts to earn the save.
"J.P. [Gagne] has as much courage as any player I have ever coached," Mainieri said. "After that game Saturday, there was no one more upset than him. But I told him that if that same situation came up the next day, he would be getting the ball again. That's exactly what happened, and he came in and did a great job. He's been outstanding for us this year, and I wasn't going to let one unfortunate outing affect what he does for us."
In midweek action Wednesday, the Irish outplayed a much smaller 13-man Rochester College squad for a 10-3 victory. With many reserves getting a chance to start, Notre Dame committed four errors but made up for the defensive struggles with 17 hits, led by the efforts of designated hittter Mike Holba's 3-for-4 day.
Freshman Martin Vergara pitched six innings and allowed one run on three hits for the win.
In the second game of the day, the Irish erupted against Detroit, defeating the Titans 23-1 in a game that was called after seven innings. The 22-run difference was the largest margin of victory for the Irish since 1922.
Senior third baseman Andy Bushey set a Notre Dame record by driving in seven runs in the game. Right fielder Brian Stavisky was 5-for-5 with five runs scored in the contest.
The two wins move the Irish to 38-14 on the season.
The first game of Notre Dame's series with Boston College is slated for 6 p.m. Friday evening. The doubleheader is set to begin at noon Saturday.
Note:
Senior centerfielder and co-captain Steve Stanley set two more Irish records Wednesday. In the first game against Rochester, he surpassed J.J. Brock on the career games started list with 239. In the nightcap against Detroit, Stanley appeared in his 240th career game to pass former teammate Alec Porzel and move into first place on that list as well.
All Sports Stories for Friday, May 17, 2002
