The intrigue in ND's matchup with No. 1 Tennessee is in the details
Notre Dame outfielder Ryan Cole delivered a money quote Wednesday afternoon so edgy and unexpected it was both virtually impossible not to pass it on, and an easy trap to try to encapsulate as the essence of this weekend’s NCAA Super Regional at No. 1 Tennessee.
“I couldn’t tell you exactly what they see,” the grad senior said of the 56-7 Vols, “but if I were them, I would be a little scared. I think we’re a very dangerous team.”
Mic drop.
Notre Dame (38-14), snubbed as a top 16 national seed coming into the NCAA Tournament, on Friday night (6 p.m. ET; ESPN2) will suddenly be the best team Tennessee has played this season by RPI standards.
After its Texas Tech-Georgia Southern-Texas Tech sweep at the NCAA Statesboro Regional last weekend, Notre Dame rose from 13th to sixth. And its 17-7 record against the Top 50 is bettered only among the 293 Division I baseball teams by Tennessee’s 25-6.
The compelling dynamic in the seventh-ever meeting between the two schools, and the first since a 3-2, 12-inning ND win in 2013, isn’t really the odds that the Irish will have to overcome, but in the details about how they’ll go about attempting to do so as well as the program’s evolution under third-year head coach Link Jarrett to get to this moment.
Here are the five that matter the most:
Jarrett’s message to the Irish
Tennessee’s statistical superiority in almost every area over almost every other team in the country — not just the Irish — matches their brusque, brash style on the field and the fanbase that packs 4,283-seat Lindsey Nelson Stadium to soak in their self-assertion as that typically plays out.
The Irish have faced 11 of the nation’s top 100 MLB Draft prospects during their 52 games this season, including No. 8 — second baseman Jace Jung of Texas Tech. But this weekend they’ll have to deal with four of them all on the same team.
“When you look at this, you look at the record and the stats and the things they’ve done all year, we don’t have to match that,” Jarrett said. “This is about three games that are played one at a time. So, I don’t want (the ND players) to look too deeply into the stats and the records and think that you’re trying to beat that.
“You’re just trying to find a way to win one game, and then you turn your attention to the next game, and it’s a best two out of three. So we don’t have to match their season. We just have to find a creative way to win two of these games.
“I think we’ve done a nice job of finding ways — creative ways — and different ways to win. And you build that type of program knowing that when you get to these moments, you’re going to have to find some nuance within the games that might give you a shot to win it. And you don’t know what that’s going to be until the bullets start to fly and you’re competing.
“So we’re going to have to find that.”
Pitching intrigue
Notre Dame has John Michael Bertrand, a 24-year-old lefty with a backstory as impressive as his ACC-leading 2.27 ERA.
Tennessee essentially has five JMBs. The three likely to start if the series goes three games are Blade Tidwell (3-1, 2.00), Chase Dollander (9-0, 2.38) and Drew Beam (8-1, 2.72). The Vols have two others who have started at least 10 games this season with ERAs under 3.00 — Zander Sechrist (4-0, 1.67) and Chase Burns (8-1, 2.69). Oh yeah, and a reliever in Ben Joyce (2-1, 2.48) who routinely throws in the 100s and touched 105.5 mph on the radar gun earlier this season against Auburn.
Notre Dame’s magic in crafting the nation’s seventh-best ERA, in large part, lies in its ability of its pitchers to adapt to new roles. Lefty Aidan Tyrell, one of only three pitchers in school history to start and win a Super Regional (2021), got a save in game 1 of the Statesboro Regional last weekend.
Freshman All-American left-hander Jack Findlay, a weekday starter for much of the season, and originally an option to start game three of the regional, instead closed games 2 and 3, with no previous closing experience.
But for the Irish, it all starts with All-American Betrand (9-2), who started his college career as a walk-on at Furman.
So why is Jarrett starting grad senior righty Austin Temple (4-1, 3.46) in game 1?
Because he wants to keep Bertrand and Temple on (max) six days’ rest. Bertrand was both the Friday and Sunday starter in Statesboro, after a six-hour weather delay limited him to just one inning on Friday.
“Temple is a unique arm, where who he is pitching against may not matter as much as Bertrand,” Jarrett said. “I think at least having Bertrand at least see what this looks like and see how their hitters look, it might actually help him process that and then add what he feels and sees into his game.
“Where Temple has the big breaking ball and the hard slider, that’s kind of what he’s going to have to do regardless of who we’re playing, where Bertrand — with the pitchability factor being so high — I think it will help him to see it.”
The X-factor
It would be kind of funny if it were Cole, given his comment. And as the only Notre Dame position player to garner All-ACC honors, he’s got the track record and skill set to back it up.
Less assuming, but every bit as intriguing, is the likely return to the lineup of second baseman Jared Miller.
The last time the grad senior took an at-bat or played in the field was May 14 against Pitt, a game in which he dislocated his shoulder diving for an errant throw to second base on a stolen base attempt.
He did make an appearance in Statesboro, though, coming into a 2-2 game Saturday night against Texas Tech in the bottom of the eighth to pinch run for catcher David LaManna. Miller promptly stole third, then raced home without a play at the plate on a wild pitch in the 3-2 victory.
Freshman shortstop Jack Penney filled in admirably at second base in Miller’s absence.
“I want Jared Miller to play,” Jarrett said. “And I didn’t feel good about it in the regional. And I talked to him about it, and it was tough, because he wants to play. And I didn’t feel like he was at a point physically where he was quite ready, and I didn’t want to jeopardize anything else with him by putting him out there until I saw with my own eyes what I know Jerod Miller looks like when he’s right.
“And I saw it (on Wednesday).
“So if things continue to progress, I want to play him. I mean the guy’s our captain. He's as savvy a baseball player as there is in the country, and I want him to have a chance to go do this”
Handling the atmosphere
Jarrett has navigated playing in Lindsey Nelson Stadium previously, both as an Auburn assistant and as the head coach at UNC-Greensboro, but he couldn’t tell you the scores of any of the games.
What he can tell you is how the stadium dimensions played out and the effect that of one of the most rabid fanbases in the country can have on the outcomes of games played there.
“It played a little smaller than some of the other stadiums in the SEC,” Jarrett said. “They do have new turf, and I talked to their staff quite a bit about the turf, because we put the same product in that they have.
“That’s a positive. You're not going into a situation where you have an hour and 15 minutes of practice and then it’s go time. That’s comforting for our guys to know that it’s going to be very similar.”
Which last year’s playing surface and quirky stadium dimension nuances were not in the Starkville Super Regional against eventual national champ Mississippi State.
Starkville, with a much larger stadium capacity but not any more intense than the folks in Knoxville, reinforced the methodology that Jarrett has learned to bring to games in these types of venues.
“We built this on the obvious reality in these settings that you can’t hear what's going on around you,” Jarrett said. “So we do a lot of communication non-verbally. All of our signals and signage and everything we do on the field — other than calling (for a fly ball).
“Our emotions need to stay in check – the negative emotions. I’m OK with the big strikeout and one of our guys pumps the fist. Somebody hits a home run and gets excited, and the guys kind of come out of the dugout doing the thing they do after the home runs. The positive stuff is very good.
“When something doesn’t go right, you’ve got to internalize and compartmentalize that and just move on to the next pitch without anybody seeing you’re frustrated about what happened.”
A blueprint years in the making
When Link Jarrett jumped into coaching at Flagler College in 1999, he didn’t know if he’d ever get a chance to run his own program, much less one that had the capability to be knocking on the door at the gateway to the College World Series.
But the former All-America shortstop at Florida State, who went to three College World Series as a player, was determined to be ready if he ever got the chance.
“As you evolve in coaching there are moments — good and bad,” he said. “I tried to piece that together for 20 years. And then you try to build it within the confines of your own program and team.
“So, that’s how we’ve got to the point where we’re in discussion for the things we’re talking about. And to get them to Omaha and to have built this thing, my assistant coaches are the best.
“All of that has to come together to have an opportunity to be in the final 16 in any college sport. But trying to process in those elite, elite games — what it looked like and what it felt like and what those teams did really well — that’s what I tried to blueprint and draw up. So, when I had an opportunity to run something the way I wanted to, I had my ingredients.”
NATIONAL SUPER REGIONAL SCHEDULE
SERIES THAT BEGIN FRIDAY, JUNE 10
All times are Eastern
Note: Game times and ESPN Network subject to change
The following four super regionals will be played Friday, June 10 and Saturday, June 11 with Sunday, June 12 for if necessary or weather-delayed games.
► Notre Dame (38-14) at No. 1 Tennessee (56-7)
Friday at 6 p.m. (ESPN2); Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPN); Sunday at TBD (TBD).
► No. 9 Texas (45-19) at No. 8 East Carolina (45-19)
Friday at noon (ESPN2); Saturday at Noon (ESPN2); Sunday at TBD (TBD)
► No. 12 Louisville (42-19-1) at No. 5 Texas A&M (40-18)
Friday at 8:30 p.m. (ESPNU); Saturday at 3 p.m. (ESPN2), Sunday at TBD (TBD)
► Oklahoma (40-21) at No. 4 Virginia Tech (44-12)
Friday at 3 p.m. (ESPN2); Saturday at Noon (ESPNU); Sunday at TBD (TBD)
SERIES THAT BEGIN SATURDAY, JUNE 11
The following four super regionals will be played Saturday, June 11 and Sunday, June 12, with Monday, June 13 for if necessary or weather-delayed games.
► UConn (49-14) at No. 2 Stanford (45-15)
Saturday at 10:30 p.m. (ESPNU); Sunday at 7 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPNU); Monday at TBD (TBD)
► Arkansas (41-19) at No. 10 North Carolina (42-20)
Saturday at 11 a.m. (ESPN); Sunday at 1 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2), Monday at TBD (TBD)
► Ole Miss (35-22) at No. 11 Southern Mississippi (47-17)
Saturday at 4 p.m. (ESPNU); Sunday at 4 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPNU); Monday at TBD (TBD)
► No. 14 Auburn (40-19) at No. 3 Oregon State (47-16)
Saturday at 10:30 p.m. (ESPN2); Sunday at 10 p.m. (ESPN2), Monday at TBD (TBD)
The determination of the Men’s College World Series order of first-round games both Friday, June 17, and Saturday, June 18, will be announced Monday, June 13. The ESPN family of networks and http://www.ncaa.com/mcws will release the MCWS game dates and times as soon as they are available.The Men’s College World Series begins play Friday, June 17, at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska.
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