Notre Dame Baseball Begins Its National Title Quest Friday Against CMU
It’s no secret that after an outright ACC Championship in the regular season, Irish baseball players and coaches will take little consolation from a loss — especially after a 14-1 defeat against Virginia that knocked top-ranked Notre Dame out of the ACC Championship last week in the pool play round.
That said, Irish head coach Link Jarrett explained during his Thursday press conference that his guys — most notably his NCAA Tournament Game 1 starting pitcher John Michael Bertrand — are all refocused and ready to look forward instead of back.
“When you go out on the field and play less than you are capable of, it sticks with you,” Jarrett said. “And when you’re not used to that, that’s when that feeling resonates even deeper. The guys were upset.”
Jarrett singled out Bertrand as having fully recovered mentally from the surprising loss to the Cavaliers after his ace starting pitcher suffered the loss in his worst outing of his season.
But again, if there is a silver lining, it’s that Jarrett pulled the plug on Bertrand after only 31 pitches in the second inning of the loss after Virginia hung a five runs in the frame with five extra-base hits, including three home runs.
For perspective, Bertrand gave up only four home runs the entire season before that forgettable second inning. Jarrett called Bertrand’s outing and the entire miserable defeat just one of those days that can happen in any level of baseball.
“He learned some things from that outing and he’s fine,” Jarrett said. “He’s an upbeat kid and he enjoys the work and everything that goes into being a competitive pitcher at this level, he embraces all of it.”
Bertrand (7-2, 3.33 ERA) gets his chance at redemption as the starter for No. 1 regional seed Notre Dame (30-11) against No. 4 Central Michigan (40-16) Friday (1 p.m. ET, ESPN3) in the first round of the four-team South Bend Regional.
The Irish won 8-4 over Central Michigan — the outright regular-season Mid-American Conference champions — in a single-game April matchup.
No. 3 Michigan (27-17) and No. 2 Connecticut (33-17) will also play Friday (7 p.m.) in the second game of the first round at Frank Eck Stadium on campus.
This marks the first time since 2004 that Notre Dame has hosted a regional.
The 16 regional rounds, scattered around the country, are all double-elimination tournaments with the winners of each advancing to the Super Regional round (June 11-14) that will feature two teams at eight sites playing a best-of-three series.
Those eight winners advance to the College World Series (June 19-30) in Omaha, Neb. The College World Series places the eight Super Regional winners into two separate four-team double-elimination tournaments, and the two winners of those play a best-of-three series for the National Championship.
The winner of the Starkville (Miss.) Regional will play the winner of the South Bend Regional. Depending on how Starkville shakes out — and assuming the Irish win their own regional — it’s not out of the question that Notre Dame could host a Super Regional.
The Irish are the tournament’s overall No. 10 seed while Starkville Regional host Mississippi State is the overall No. 7 seed. If both win their respective regionals, the Bulldogs would host the Super Regional.
Of course, Super Regional and College World Series projections are premature right now. In the meantime, Jarrett stressed that his practices have been upbeat and excitement runs high, both within the team and around the program. Frank Eck Stadium will host a capacity crowd, and tickets for Friday’s games sold out within an hour of becoming available to the public.
“We’ve had several practices and the guys are ready to play,” he said. “That adrenaline and that feeling probably hasn’t been in the air in this stadium in this part of the season, obviously in a long time.”
South Bend Regional Schedule
Friday, June 4 — Central Michigan vs. Notre Dame 1 p.m. ET (Game 1); Michigan vs. Connecticut 7 p.m. ET (Game 2)
Saturday, June 5 — Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 (Game 3) 12 p.m. ET; Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2 (Game 4) 6 p.m. ET
Sunday, June 6 — Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4 (Game 5) 12 p.m. ET; Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 4 (Game 6) 6 p.m. ET
Monday, June 7 — Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 4 (Game 7, if necessary) 1 p.m. ET
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