No. 8 Irish well-positioned for ACC title run, despite loss to Pitt
No. 8 Notre Dame’s ability to control its own destiny in the final week of the ACC baseball regular season slipped away Sunday with a 5-2 loss to visiting Pittsburgh at Frank Eck Stadium.
Had the Irish (31-11, 15-9 ACC) prevailed, they would have gone into next week’s three-game series at No. 6 Miami (37-14, 18-9) needing no help to lock down an Atlantic Division title and the No. 1 overall seed in the ACC baseball tournament, May 24-29 in Charlotte, N.C.
Now they’ll be cheering for Duke to take at least one game from fourth-ranked Virginia Tech (36-11, 16-9). Even then, the Irish would need to sweep the Hurricanes — one of the best teams on the ND schedule — to gain the tourney’s top seed.
The two division winners are awarded the conference tourney’s top two seeds. Nos. 3 through 12 are determined by conference winning percentage. The 13th- and 14th-place teams are excluded from tourney play.
After playing a non-conference road game Tuesday at Northwestern (22-25), Notre Dame opens the Miami series Thursday night (7 EDT).
For the Irish to take the Atlantic Division title, they must at least match what seventh-ranked Louisville (35-15-1, 16-10-1) does in its final three-game series, at home against 11th-ranked Virginia (37-13, 16-11).
Louisville swept the Irish in three games earlier this season, but in a virtual tie with the two teams playing different totals of games, percentage points are the first determining factor in unbreaking the standings tie. And ND holds that edge.
The Cardinals lost two of three on the road to Virginia Tech this weekend, including 6-4 on Sunday.
No. 13 Florida State (32-18, 15-12), which took two of three from Miami this weekend, is still in play for the Atlantic title, but would need to sweep North Carolina and hope both the Irish and Cardinals lose their series. The title path for NC State (32-17, 14-11) — which finishes with Wake Forest — is similarly narrow and remote.
Notre Dame had little trouble with Pittsburgh in the first two games of their weekend series, but Logan Evans (4-6) — who had lost his past five decisions — and Baron Stuart combined to limit the Irish to just six hits.
The Panthers used a four-run seventh to take a 5-0 lead, three of them coming on a two-out home run by Tatem Levins.
Notre Dame got two runs back in the bottom of the inning on Jack Penney’s second homer of the year. The Irish got the potential-tying run to the plate with one out in the ninth, but Stuart got Penney to ground out and struck out Zack Prajzner swinging to finish off ND.
If there was a silver lining Sunday it was starting pitcher Jack Findlay’s performance. Used mostly in midweek, non-conference games this season, Findlay pitched a career-high 4 1/3 innings Sunday, giving up five hits and a run with no walks and three strikeouts.
He was tagged with the loss and is now 5-1 with a 0.96 ERA.
ACC BASEBALL STANDINGS
SATURDAY: Temple, Mercer tag-team for the win
Austin Temple and Will Mercer tag-teamed for eight strong innings on the mound as No. 8 Notre Dame moved into a virtual tie for first place in the Atlantic Division of the ACC Saturday with an 8-1 victory over Pittsburgh at ND’s Frank Eck Stadium.
The Irish (31-10, 15-8) lead Louisville (35-14-1, 16-9-1) by percentage points, after the Cardinals fell 4-3 at Virginia Tech on Saturday. The Irish are 17-3-1 in ACC series over the past two-plus seasons under coach Link Jarrett.
Temple went 4 ⅔ innings allowing three hits, four walks and an unearned run while striking out a career-high 10 batters. Mercer relieved in the fifth, with runners on first and second, and the Irish leading 2-1.
The senior lefty got Pitt cleanup hitter Ron Washington Jr. to line out to shortstop Zack Prajzner to end the threat.
Mercer (1-1) hurled three more scoreless innings to pick up the win, allowing two hits and striking out three in one of his most effective outings of the season. Matt Bedford walked a batter in the ninth but struck out the side to finish up.
The 7-8-9 spots in the Irish lineup combined for six of ND’s 12 hits, four runs scored and three RBIs. The original No. 7 hitter, second baseman Jared Miller, left the game with an apparent wrist injury.
Jack Penney was 2-for-2 with a run scored in his place. David LaManna and Prajzner each collected two hits and scored two runs.
Pitt starter Billy Corcoran (7-4), a junior right-hander drafted out of high school by the Texas Rangers, was charged with seven earned runs, the first time this season he has given up more than three to an ACC team in a game.
FRIDAY: Irish take advantage of misuces
No. 8 Notre Dame took advantage of four Pitt first-inning errors to take a 5-0 lead, and John Michael Bertrand and two relievers made it stand up in an 8-3 home victory Friday night in the first game of a three-game ACC baseball series.
Brooks Coetzee cracked a two-run homer in the fourth, collected three hits overall and scored two runs for the Irish (30-10, 14-8 ACC). Carter Putz and Jack Brannigan added two hits each.
Bertrand (7-1) allowed six hits and two runs over seven innings to get the win. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out nine. His ERA is an ACC-best 2.37.
The Irish have just six games left in the regular season, and all five of the ACC games in particular carry critical postseason implications.
As of Wednesday, both Baseball America and DIBaseball projected Notre Dame as the 10th overall seed in the 64-team NCAA Baseball Tournament field, which means the Irish would host a regional for the second straight year.
Baseball America has the Irish playing Texas State, Iowa and Ball State in the four-team regional. DI Baseball projects Oklahoma, UCLA and Evansville in the South Bend Regional field.
To potentially host a Super Regional, Notre Dame would need to be seeded eighth overall or higher.
The Irish are also trying to improve their seeding in the upcoming ACC Baseball Tournament. If the season ended Friday night, Notre Dame would have been the third seed. But the top seven teams are tightly packed, and the Irish potentially could still end as the top seed.
The teams lower in the standings, including Pitt, have plenty of motivation as well. The Panthers are listed as one of the first four teams out of the NCAA tourney, on the wrong side of the bubble.
DIBaseball projects 10 ACC teams into the 64-team NCAA field, with five hosting regionals (Louisville, Miami, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame and Virginia). Baseball America has nine ACC teams on the right side of the bubble and with the same five host teams.
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