The Notre Dame baseball team played in two of the nation’s most iconic parks this past week — Wrigley Field and Fenway Park.
The less-than-iconic performances at each has likely put the Irish (30-22) in a position to, at the very least, needing to upend the top seed and nation’s No. 1 team, Wake Forest (45-9), in this week’s ACC Baseball Championship in Durham, N.C., to extend their season into a third straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
The ACC tourney begins Tuesday with pool play in three four-team pods, the winner of each advancing to Saturday’s semifinals. Notre Dame is seeded eighth and opens pool play Wednesday at 11 a.m., against 12 seed Pittsburgh (23-30).
The Irish then play in the very last pool play game of the tourney, Friday at 7 p.m., against the regular-season champion Demon Deacons.
All games up to Sunday’s championship game will be televised on the ACC Network. ESPN2 will air the title game.
The bottom two ACC teams, per usual, are excluded from the tourney field. This year that turned out to be preseason No. 16 ranked Louisville (31-24) and former ND coach Link Jarrett’s Florida State Seminoles (23-31).
Notre Dame is coming off a 1-3 week that included an 8-7, 11-inning loss at Wrigley Field in Chicago to one of the worst college baseball teams in the nation, Northwestern (10-40, 261 RPI). They also lost two of three to a very good Boston College team (14 RPI), including an 8-4 setback at Fenway Park in Boston in a series-finale matchup the Irish desperately needed to win.
Notre Dame was 2-1 vs. Pitt in a road series during the regular season and 1-2 vs. Wake Forest on the road. Pitt was 1-2 vs. Wake, and those two teams play Thursday at 11 a.m.
The Demon Deacons will likely save ace Rhett Lowder (11-0, 1.71 ERA) for the winner of Wednesday’s ND-Pitt game. Wake only needs to win that particular game to advance to the semis, with the ACC tiebreaker rules favoring the highest seeded team in each pod.
The bad news for Pitt and the Irish is that Lowder, third in the nation in ERA, is only one of three Wake Forest starters ranked in the top 25 nationally in ERA. And they own the best team earned-run average in the nation at 2.72. The next-closest team is Northeastern at 3.55. The next-closest Power 5 team is Tennessee at 3.70.
Oh, and Wake has a potent offense too — eighth in the nation in scoring (9.1 runs per game) and on-base percentage (.428) and 10th in home runs per game (1.93).
Notre Dame’s NCAA Tournament résumé needs a boost after last week. The Irish stand 47th in RPI, 11th-best among the 14 ACC teams. The biggest hole in their case for NCAA Tourney inclusion is a non-conference strength-of-schedule ranking of 249. Only Washington (274) among the top 50 teams in the RPI has a worse such ranking.
ND’s strength of its résumé is its 6-6 record vs. the top 25.That’s fourth-best in the ACC behind Wake (11-3), Virginia (4-2) and Duke (11-7).
2023 ACC BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Durham Bulls Athletic Park; Durham, N.C.
POOL A – #1 Wake Forest (45-9), #8 Notre Dame (30-22), #12 Pitt (23-30)
POOL B – #2 Virginia (44-11), #7 North Carolina (33-21), #11 Georgia Tech (30-25)
POOL C – #3 Clemson (39-17), #6 Boston College (34-17), #10 Virginia Tech (30-21)
POOL D – #4 Miami (37-18), #5 Duke (35-19), #9 NC State (34-18)
Tuesday
No. 10 Virginia Tech vs. No. 6 Boston College, 11 a.m. (ACC Network)
No. 11 Georgia Tech vs. No. 7 North Carolina, 3 p.m. (ACC Network)
No. 9 NC State vs. No. 5 Duke, 7 p.m. (ACC Network)
Wednesday
No. 12 Pitt vs. No. 8 Notre Dame, 11 a.m. (ACC Network)
No. 2 Virginia vs. No. 11 Georgia Tech, 3 p.m. (ACC Network)
No. 3 Clemson vs. No. 10 Virginia Tech, 7 p.m. (ACC Network)
Thursday
No. 1 Wake Forest vs. No. 12 Pitt, 11 a.m. (ACC Network)
No. 7 North Carolina vs. No. 2 Virginia, 3 p.m. (ACC Network)
No. 4 Miami vs. No. 9 NC State, 7 p.m. (ACC Network)
Friday
No. 6 Boston College vs. No. 3 Clemson, 11 a.m. (ACC Network)
No. 5 Duke vs. No. 4 Miami, 3 p.m. (ACC Network)
No. 8 Notre Dame vs. No. 1 Wake Forest, 7 p.m. (ACC Network)
Saturday
Pool A Winner vs. Pool D Winner, 1 p.m. (ACC Network)
Pool B Winner vs. Pool C Winner, 5 p.m. (ACC Network)
Sunday
ACC Championship, Noon (ESPN2)
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