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Notre Dame messes with Texas, advances in College World Series

Notre Dame's Jack Brannigan scores a run in the College World Series Friday night ahead of the tag of Texas catcher Silas Ardoin. Brannigan was initally called out, but replay reversed the outcome.
Notre Dame's Jack Brannigan scores a run in the College World Series Friday night ahead of the tag of Texas catcher Silas Ardoin. Brannigan was initally called out, but replay reversed the outcome. (Steven Branscombe, USA TODAY Sports Network)

This time Notre Dame didn’t need its rally bananas, but they worked their magic anyway.

Carter Putz’s ninth-inning solo home run came with the new practice in full force and punctuated unseeded ND’s 7-3 takedown of ninth-seeded Texas, Friday night in the opening round of the College World Series at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb.

Postseason revelation, freshman Jack Findlay, provided 2 ⅓ innings of hitless relief to finish off the Longhorns (47-21), destined now for an elimination game with fifth-seed Texas A&M (42-19) Sunday at 2 p.m. EDT.

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The 38-time CWS participants and six-time national champions were held without an extra-base hit for the first time in 68 games this season by Findlay, middle relief man Alex Rao and starter and winner John Michael Bertrand (10-3).

Texas came into the CWS ranked fourth nationally in slugging among the 293 Division I baseball teams and first in homers among the eight-team field in Omaha (ninth nationally overall). Only four of the last 40 national champs lost their opening-round game.

“Stay out of their way. … You just kind of let them go a little bit,” newly anointed National Coach of the Year Link Jarrett said of his approach Friday night, coming off an Irish Super Regional upset of No. 1 Tennessee last weekend.

“And there's a time you might have to change things that you're trying to do or how you approach them. But my gut was, 'This is not the time.' There was no crazy message before the game. You just sometimes have to know when to let them go play.”

Notre Dame (41-15), in its third College World Series, next plays Sunday night at 7 ET (ESPN2) against unseeded Oklahoma (43-22). The Sooners built leads of 8-0 and 12-3 before closing out Texas A&M, 13-8, on Friday afternoon.

“It doesn't really matter to us if we're underdogs or projected to win,” Bertrand said. “The message is to go 1-0. By any means go 1-0. I'm not sure if that really matters to us. It's more how we play and just being ready to play some baseball.”

A crowd of 25,134, that included former ND coach Paul Mainieri of the 2002 Irish CWS team, looked on as Notre Dame jumped on Texas All-America lefty Pete Hansen for a run in the first inning. It came on a one-out solo home run to right from second baseman Jared Miller, his fifth of the season.

The Irish are 34-4 in games this season in which they score first.

“It just gives you the momentum and the mojo,” Jarrett said of landing the first jab. “And when you're coaching the game with a lead … you have some options in terms of running yourself into an out, when you're up a little bit. It's a good feeling. Like the playbook seems to open a little bit more. So that was huge.”

Irish left fielder Ryan Cole stole second in the third inning to help set up ND’s second run. It was just the seventh time this season a player had attempted to steal with Hansen on the mound and the first time a steal was successful against him.

He came home on a Putz groundout for a 2-0 lead. Texas answered back in the bottom of the inning, but the Irish added another run in the fourth and three more in the fifth. No. 9 hitter Spencer Myers had an RBI in each of those innings.

In the fourth, with runners on the corners, he laid down a bunt. Hansen flipped to catcher Silas Ardoin and speedy third baseman Jack Brannigan was called out at the plate. But replay reversed the call.

In the fifth, the Irish chased Hansen after an RBI single by Zach Prajzner. Righty Tristan Stevens then balked home a run and gave up Myers’ RBI single to right, with both runs charged to Hansen.

“We couldn't get that flow going, and we just couldn't get their traffic off the bases all day,” Texas coach David Pierce said. “So we were just constantly under stress, defensively and pitching.”

Meanwhile, against a Texas lineup featuring eight right-handers, including the nation’s top home run hitter in Ivan Melendez (32), Bertrand pitched into the sixth and left with a 6-2 lead.

“I feel he was more like a pitchability guy, not really having a lot of velo to beat us,” Texas’ Dylan Campbell said. “But he was landing his slider and stuff and kind of gave us some trouble with that and just kind of overall (was) just missing our barrels the whole day. We just couldn't really figure him out.”

Rao wild-pitched in a run charged to Bertrand, but struck out the next two batters to end the inning. He then retired the first two in the seventh, both on scorching liners to Brannigan at third. But then he walked leadoff man Douglas Hodo III on four pitches.

In came Findlay to face the only left-hander in the Longhorn lineup, Eric Kennedy. He struck him out with Melendez on deck. When Melendez, batting .396, did come up to lead off the eighth, Findlay struck him out too. Melendez singled in four at-bats on the night, and the nation’s leader in RBIs (94) and slugging (.887) did not drive in a run.

Findlay retired all seven batters he faced Friday night. And in the five games in which the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Ledgewood, N.J., product has appeared in during the NCAA tourney, he’s amassed 12 ⅔ innings, allowing three hits, one run and four walks, while striking out 14.

His postseason ERA shrank to 0.71 Friday night and he picked up his fourth save of the tournament to go along with a win Sunday at Tennessee.

“You can't gauge the competitiveness until you see pitching competitively in high-stakes situations,” Jarrett said of Findlay’s postseason emergence. “He's just poised. Findlay's fastball is hard to wrap your mind around. Some of them go that way, to that side, and some of them -- it's just a tough thing. And clearly he's been very, very precise with what he's doing.”

BOX SCORE

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES SCORES AND SCHEDULE  

Seeds: 2 Stanford, 5 Texas A&M, 9 Texas, 14 Auburn

Unseeded: Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Ole MIss

BRACKET 1

At Charles Schwab Field; Omaha, Neb.

(All Times EDT)

Friday, June 17

Game 1: Oklahoma 13, Texas A&M 8

Game 2: Notre Dame 7, Texas 3

Sunday, June 19

Game 3: Oklahoma vs. Notre Dame, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Game 4: Texas A&M vs. Texas, 2 p.m. (ESPN)

Tuesday, June 21

Game 5: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 winner, 2 p.m. (ESPN)

Wednesday, June 22

Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 2 p.m. (ESPN)

Thursday, June 23 (If necessary)

Game 7: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, TBA (ESPN)

BRACKET 2

Saturday, June 18

Game 1: Arkansas 17, Stanford 2

Game 2: Ole Miss 5, Auburn 1

Sunday, June 20

Game 3: Arkansas vs. Ole Miss, 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Game 4: Stanford vs. Auburn, 2 p.m. (ESPN)

Tuesday, June 21

Game 5: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 winner, 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Wednesday, June 22

Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Thursday, June 23 (If necessary)

Game 7: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, TBA (ESPN2)

FINALS

Saturday, June 25

Game 1: Bracket 1 winner vs. Bracket 2 winner, 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Sunday, June 26

Game 2: Bracket 1 winner vs. Bracket 2 winner, 3 p.m. (ESPN)

Monday, June 27 (If necessary)

Game 3: Bracket 1 winner vs. Bracket 2 winner, 7 p.m. (ESPN)

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