Almost.
That’s been the overriding theme for the Notre Dame baseball team in Shawn Stiffler’s first season as head coach, right down to the final strike in a 7-5 Irish loss to top-seeded and No. 1 nationally ranked Wake Forest, Friday night in Durham, N.C.
Notre Dame’s hope at this point is that the NCAA Tournament selection committee changes the narrative Monday by including the Irish (30-24) in the field of 64, when the tourney bracket is revealed (noon, ESPN2).
“I refuse to believe this is the last game we’ll play,” said Irish grad senior shortstop Zack Prajzner, a key figure on last season’s team that reached the College World Series and this year’s squad still hopeful of a third straight NCAA Tournament berth.
“I know nobody wants us in the regional. I really believe that. We'll be ready to go wherever to play whoever, and we believe we can do some damage.”
The Irish had already been eliminated from contention from a semifinal berth in the ACC Baseball Championships when eighth-seeded ND was upended in pool play by 12th-seeded Pitt, 9-5, on Wednesday.
Friday’s loss to the Demon Deacons (47-9) was the last game of pool play among the four three-team pods. And it may turn out to be the last game of this year’s ACC tournament.
The league moved up the scheduled 5 p.m. EDT semifinal between North Carolina and Clemson to 1 p.m., and shifted the scheduled 1 p.m. semi between Wake Forest and Miami from Durham to North Carolina’s campus in nearby Chapel Hill, all in an attempt to beat a nasty weekend weather forecast.
It might not be enough to get any games on Saturday — or Sunday. If the tournament is truncated without any more games, top seed Wake Forest will get the league’s automatic bid, though all four semifinalists, plus Boston College, NC State, Duke and Virginia are projected into the tournament field in the latest DI Baseball bracketology.
The Irish, losers of five of their last six games, were slotted as the first team out heading into ND’s fourth game against Wake Forest this season.
“Every game the margin is so small,” Stiffler, formerly of VCU, said of his first run through the ACC. “You look at tonight’s game, and the difference in that game was probably 12 pitches. The season is so tight between who gets in, who doesn’t. Who gets into the ACC Tournament, who gets into the NCAA [tourney].
“The league is impressive and it’s extremely deep. It’s tough to catch your breath, but it’s fun and it makes it worth it. The caliber of players and men you get to coach, it’s certainly why I wanted to be here.”
Notre Dame’s best résumé argument is its record against elite competition. The Irish were 7-8 vs. the RPI Top 25 coming into Friday night and 10-11 against the top 50. Prior to its 1-5 slide, the Irish put together an 11-4 run and without three of the players who were keys to ND’s 3-1 road win over Wake back on March 19 in the conference-opening series.
Only third baseman and cleanup hitter Jack Penney (shoulder) among them might be available if the Irish do make one of the 16 NCAA regionals next weekend. Last year’s leading home run hitter Jack Zyska and sophomore ace lefty Jack Findlay remain out of the mix.
Notre Dame got big contributions, though, Friday night from some unlikely heroes. Its 7-8-9 hitters, outfielder DM Jefferson, fill-in third baseman Casey Kmet and freshman second baseman Estevan Moreno combined to go 4-for-10 with three doubles, four RBIs and two runs scored against the nation’s top pitching staff (2.70 ERA). Prajzner went 2-for-5 and drove in the other Irish run from his No. 2 spot in the order.
In the ninth inning Notre Dame had its best power and overall hitter at the plate in catcher Vinny Martinez with two outs and Carter Putz on second base. But right-hander Cole Roland — the fifth Wake Forest pitcher in the game — struck out Martinez swinging to end the game.
Wake Forest struck early, with the first of Nick Kurtz’s two home runs in the game in the bottom of the first and an RBI double by Tommy Hawke in the second inning against Irish starter Blake Hely, staking the Deacons to a 2-0 lead.
The Irish were resilient and surged into the lead, 3-2, in the top of the fourth on a two-out, two-run double to right by Jefferson. Scoring were Martinez and Brooks Coetzee, each of whom reached base by being hit by a pitch from Wake starter Seth Keener.
For Coetzee, it was his nation’s-leading 31st beaning. That extends his ACC record as well as tying ND’s long-standing record with Brett Lilley. He’s six short of the single-season NCAA mark. Lilley holds the NCAA career record with 109.
Prajzner’s RBI double in the top of the fifth extended Notre Dame’s lead to 4-2, but Wake — the nation’s eighth-highest scoring team — answered in the bottom of the inning.
Kurtz’s 23rd home run of the season and second of the game leading off the fifth, this one off lefty reliever Ryan Lynch, shaved the lead to one. Kurtz came into the game seventh nationally in home runs per game and fifth in on-base percentage (.533)
Right-hander Jackson Dennies (0-4) then relieved Lynch and struggled with his control from the outset. Though he did record two outs while maintaining the ND lead, Dennies loaded the bases on a hit batsman and two walks.
Wake tied the game on his second wild pitch of the frame, then went ahead for good, 5-4, after another walk was followed by Hawke’s RBI infield single. The nation’s No. 3 home run hitter, Brock Wilken, hit his 27th, a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth, for a 7-5 Wake lead heading to the ninth before Roland finished off the Irish for the third win in four meetings with them this season.
“To do what Wake did is unbelievably impressive,” Stiffler said of a program that tied the school record with its 47th win and went 22-7 in league play during the regular season.
But Stiffler also was impressed with the team that took the Demon Deacons to the wire Friday night, his first Irish team.
“In my opinion, it’s the greatest institution in the country and these are the greatest young men to work with,” Stiffler said. “To be here, I’m extremely humbled and privileged.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of a group than I am of this group. They’re impressive for sure. … It’s the standard that this group has set. The way [former ND coach Link Jarrett’s] group picked the program up out of the cellar a few years back. Just the standard that they have set, the example that they have set.
“That’s the thing I’m most excited about, is that people understand we are a baseball program that is moving forward, and we’re going to continue to move forward. We’re not always going to finish the year in Omaha, but I think everybody would look up and say that the program is certainly re-established where it needs to be.”
Durham Bulls Athletic Park; Durham, N.C.
(All Times EDT)
POOL A – #1 Wake Forest, #8 Notre Dame, #12 Pitt
POOL B – #2 Virginia, #7 North Carolina, #11 Georgia Tech
POOL C – #3 Clemson, #6 Boston College, #10 Virginia Tech
POOL D – #4 Miami, #5 Duke, #9 NC State
TUESDAY
No. 6 Boston College 11, No. 10 Virginia Tech 7
No. 7 North Carolina 11, No. 11 Georgia Tech 5
No. 9 NC State 8,. No. 5 Duke 7 (11 innings)
WEDNESDAY
No. 12 Pitt 9, No. 8 Notre Dame 5
No. 2 Virginia 15, No. 11 Georgia Tech 1
No. 3 Clemson 14, No. 10 Virginia Tech 5
THURSDAY
No. 1 Wake Forest (45-9) vs. No. 12 Pitt (24-30), 11 a.m. (ACC Network)
No. 7 North Carolina 10, No. 2 Virginia 2
No. 4 Miami 4, No. 9 NC State 2
FRIDAY
No. 3 Clemson 4, No. 6 Boston College 1
No. 4 Miami (38-18) 7, No. 5 Duke 6
No. 1 Wake Forest 7, No. 8 Notre Dame 5
Semifinals
No. 1 Wake Forest (47-9) vs. No. 4 Miami (39-18), 1 p.m. (ACC Network Xtra)*
No. 7 North Carolina (35-21) vs. No. 3 Clemson (41-17), 1 p.m. (ACC Network)
*Wake-Miami semi moved to Chapel Hill, N.C.
SUNDAY
ACC Championship, Noon (ESPN2)
MONDAY
NCAA Tournament Selection Show, Noon (ESPN2)
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