Freshman Jack Findlay, Irish rise to the occasion to capture NCAA regional
Notre Dame baseball coach Link Jarrett paired ace pitcher John Michael Bertrand and freshman hurler Jack Findlay as roommates on the road this season, hoping some of what made Bertrand an All-American might be absorbed along the way.
Sunday night in Statesboro, Ga., the teacher and the student both rose to the occasion, nudging the 14th-ranked Irish into history with their first back-to-back NCAA baseball regional titles ever, this one capped by a 2-1 victory over 22nd-ranked Texas Tech at J.I. Clements Stadium.
Bertrand settled in after working out of trouble in the first couple of innings to give Notre Dame (38-14) 7 ⅔ strong innings. Findlay got the final four outs, striking out Owen Washburn on three pitches after inheriting a bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the eighth.
He then pitched himself into a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the ninth and faced Texas Tech All-America second baseman and projected July MLB first-round draft choice Jace Jung with two outs.
Jung, who in the eighth knocked in third-seeded Tech’s only run of the game, bounced out to first baseman Carter Putz to end the uprising and send the Statesboro Regional’s No. 2 seed to Knoxville, Tenn. There, next weekend, the Irish will face the nation’s No. 1 team, Tennessee (56-7), in a best-of-three Super Regional for a trip to the College World Series.
“We talk about coming in and executing pitches right away, so just focusing on that,” said Findlay, who picked up a six-out save Saturday night in Notre Dame’s 6-4 victory over regional top seed and host Georgia Southern.
“When you execute pitches, good things are going to happen.”
The thing is Findlay had often done that throughout 2021, but in mostly low-leverage game situations. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound lefty from Ledgewood, N.J., had mostly made starts against mediocre non-conference competition for midweek games.
Late in the season, though, Jarrett was looking for a third weekend starter and auditioned Findlay against non-NCAA Tourney teams from the ACC, Boston College and Pitt, which he handled well. So in the final regular-season series at top 10 team Miami, Findlay was given his first real pressure situation.
He didn’t make it out of the first inning, giving up six earned runs in two-thirds of an inning, with his ERA rising from 0.81 to a still-respectable 2.38.
Most importantly, he learned. From that experience, and from Bertrand, a 24-year-old lefty cut as a freshman walk-on at Furman five spring ago.
“The whole coaching staff prepares us the entire fall as well as into the spring,” Bertrand said of Findlay, “being able to put us in pressure situations and training us to get out of them.”
And twice during the tourney, the Irish did it against the nation’s No. 10 scoring team in Texas Tech.(39-22).
The Irish got just enough offense to make the pitching stand up. Ryan Cole collected four of Notre Dame’s nine hits and drove in both runs. He singled Spencer Myers home in the third and beat out a grounder to second base in the fourth to plate Zach Prajzner.
Texas Tech, meanwhile, went 1-for-9 and hit into two double plays with runners in scoring position against the Irish, and the Red Raiders were 3-for-31 in those situations for the tournament.
“Our games were three tough, grinding, competing-for-every-pitch games,” said Jarrett, whose team won by a combined score of 11-7 in Statesboro compared to a 50-5 differential at last year’s South Bend Regional.
“The poise, the composure that obviously these two (Bertrand and Findlay) pitch with. The way our team defended, just exceptional in all facets of that.”
So, after going to one Super Regional in the first 21 seasons of the format (2002), Notre Dame has reached that stage in back-to-back seasons. The exact dates — either Friday through Sunday or Saturday through next Monday — will be announced Tuesday, after all 16 regionals have finished.
At least the Irish should feel at home on the road. In Jarrett’s 112 games as Notre Dame’s baseball coach, Sunday night was their 70th game away from Frank Eck Stadium and their 50th win in such games.
“We're going to have to play well in all phases of the game, control our emotions, because it’s going to be Starkville-esque from last year,” Jarrett said, referring to ND’s eventual 2-1 series loss to eventual national champ Mississippi State.
“We dealt with 15,000 fans. This is going to be very similar. And all parts of your game have to be on point.”
It took Bertrand (9-2, 2.27 ERA) a little while to get on point two nights after starting the regional opener against the very same Texas Tech team in a game the Irish won 3-2 by scoring on a wide pitch. But a six-hour weather delay that started before the first inning was complete Friday made it impossible to bring Bertrand back when play resumed.
But not impossible two days later.
He had a shutout through seven innings but ran into some trouble in the bottom of the eighth. Easton Murrell hit a one-out double and advanced to third on a groundout. Jung then crushed a 3-1 pitch that might have been a home run in a lot of ballparks. But Georgia Southern has a 24-foot-high monster in right field that houses its scoreboard.
Murrell scored, but Jung had to settle for a long single that bounced off the wall. Ty Coleman than singled, and Jarrett pulled Bertrand in favor of hard-throwing right-hander Alex Rao.
Rao had pitched three scoreless innings Friday against Tech, but walked Kurt Wilson on four pitches. Out came Rao and in came Findlay, who needed to just three pitches – all strikes – to escape.
In the ninth, a single, a walk to a .118 hitter and a hit batsman on a 1-2 pitch loaded the bases with two outs and Jung (.487 on-base percentage) at the plate.
“That’s the guy you want standing up there,” Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock said.
And with righty Matt Bedford warming, Findlay was who Jarrett wanted standing on the mound.
“We talked about how badly you want those last nine, six, three outs,” Jarrett said. “And to experience that really throughout the whole tournament was something I know I’ll remember and kind of the trademark of how I felt in these games — just walking out of there knowing how hard they fought to wrap these things up.”
NCAA TOURNAMENT
Statesboro Regional Schedule
At. J.I. Clements Stadium; Statesboro, Ga.
Regional Seeds: 1. Georgia Southern, 2. Notre Dame, 3. Texas Tech, 4. UNC-Greensboro
(All Times Eastern)
Friday, June 3
Game 1: Notre Dame 3, Texas Tech 2
Game 2: Georgia Southern vs. UNC-Greensboro, postponed
Saturday, June 4
Game 2: Georgia Southern 8, UNC-Greensboro 0
Game 3: Texas Tech 2, UNC-Greensboro 0 (UNC-Greensboro eliminated)
Game 4: Notre Dame 6, Georgia Southern 4
Sunday, June 5
Game 5: Texas Tech 3, Georgia Southern 1 (Georgia Southern eliminated)
Game 6: Notre Dame 2, Texas Tech 1 (Texas Tech eliminated)
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