A bad three hours, or even a bad half-hour, can be especially cruel this time of year.
One game or one inning with too many uncharacteristic misses, bad moments and off nights can wipe out four months that came before it. Four months of smiles, firsts, records and reset program expectations, suddenly over.
Undeniably unkind.
Mississippi State dog-piled on the Dudy Noble Field mound, its third straight College World Series trip secured.
Notre Dame, meanwhile, could only look on and reflect upon the reasons that prevented it from enjoying that moment in its first taste of highly visible postseason baseball.
An 11-7 loss to Mississippi State Monday night in game three of the NCAA Tournament Super Regionals left the No. 10 seed Irish (34-13) a win shy of their first College World Series appearance since 2002. A season that included a runaway ACC title and regional romp ran just short on clean innings, defensive gems and big hits.
“There were moments in it where I thought we played our style of baseball," coach Link Jarrett said. "There were other moments where we didn’t pitch or defend at the level we did this year.”
Much of the blame could be reasonably assigned to game one, a 9-8 loss Saturday in which Notre Dame had a 7-3 lead at the halfway point. That error-filled defeat surely will be a source of what-ifs. But Notre Dame arrived Monday with a chance to overcome it and continue a season that had already placed the program back on the national map.
One bad inning hammered a dent in the chances. A dent that proved too deep to fix.
“We dug ourselves into a hole,” designated hitter Carter Putz said.
A seemingly unending second inning handed Notre Dame an early 7-1 deficit. It began when starter Will Mercer allowed three straight baserunners to start the frame, the latter two on walks. Jarrett, sensing something was off, pulled him after the second free pass.
Alex Rao relieved him and, for a moment, appeared to mitigate damage. Mississippi State scored on a fielder’s choice ground ball and a sacrifice fly to take a 3-1 lead. The Bulldogs had a man on first base and two outs — not exactly a natural setup for an outburst.
But the third out eluded Notre Dame for six more batters. An RBI single from Mississippi State third baseman Kamren James after a stolen base made the score 4-1. A walk to cleanup hitter Luke Hancock put two runners on for catcher Logan Tanner, who hit his team-leading 14th home run.
Notre Dame did not allow any more runs in the inning, though it needed two more pitching changes to escape it. All told, the second inning contained five walks, four hits and three steals.
“When you’re up in the zone and in the middle of the plate, they will throttle it,” Jarrett said. “They did. They laid off some pitches, drew some walks and the wheels started to roll. Tough to absorb, tough to strategize through, tough to shake off, tough to process.”
The Irish’s deficit swelled to 10-2 before they partially whittled it down. Putz’s two-run double highlighted a three-run fifth.
Mississippi State brought in closer Landon Sims to pitch the final four innings and hold an 11-5 lead, and he did, but not before Notre Dame first baseman Niko Kavadas demolished a center-cut fastball for a star-scraping two-run homer that ended up in the right-field parking lot.
Kavadas ends the season with 22 home runs, a Notre Dame single-season record, to go with 64 RBI.
“When he gets going, he can carry any team at any level,” Jarrett said. “He has not played his last game by any stretch. He will be just as good with a wood bat.”
Sims, who entered with a 1.28 ERA and .149 opponent batting average, had not allowed a homer all season.
“If there’s anybody I’d be not extremely mad about giving up a home run to, it’s him,” Sims said.
But that blast was as close as Notre Dame drew. Even though usual No. 1 starter John Michael Bertrand came on in relief and retired 10 straight Mississippi State batters. Even though it led off the ninth inning with two straight hits and evoked visions of a Kavadas game-tying grand slam. All the Irish needed was one more baserunner to give him an opportunity to provide an all-time moment.
If he had the chance, that woeful second inning would’ve been forgotten. Instead, he came up with two on and one out and smacked a ground ball.
Four-six-three. Double play. Game over. Cruel, indeed. His season wasn’t supposed to end like this. Neither was Notre Dame’s.
None of it changes that the Irish are returning many of their regulars for 2022 and will get Bertrand back for a sixth year. Jarrett said he plans to use the free season of eligibility the NCAA awarded all spring athletes for their lost 2020. The program’s arrow is pointed upward for next season, and perhaps beyond.
In the moment, that feels distant.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Jarrett said, “to know that you were nine innings away.”
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