Image from bigeast.org

The Fighting Irish could have walked home today, but decided that they want to stay. Beating Rutgers 9-0, Notre Dame stays alive the Big East Baseball Tournament.

Notre Dame (30-27), which dropped its opening game of the Championship on Wednesday, remains alive in the double-elimination bracket to face either Seton Hall or St. John’s Friday at 3 pm ET Rutgers (31-25) was eliminated following its second loss of the tournament.

Senior pitcher Will Hudgins gave Notre Dame seven shutout innings and improved his record to 5-3.

CF Charlie Markson went 4-5 with 2 RBIs and 4 runs scored. Adding to Notre Dame’s offensive success was 1B Trey Mancini, who went 2-4 with 1 RBI, 2 runs scored, and 1 walk. The Irish totaled 14 hits with 1 hit coming from 7 different players.

Markson’s solo home run in the top of the 1st was the only run Notre Dame really needed, but the Irish added 2 more in the top of the 3rd on an RBI double to leftfield by Joe Hudson and Alex Robinson’s fielder’s choice that brought in Trey Mancini and put the Irish up 3-0 before you knew it.

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The Irish improved to 27-23 overall and 13-11 in the Big East. The Scarlet Knights dropped to 28-22 and 13-11.

Freshman pitcher for Notre Dame, Pat Connaughton, earned the win in yesterday’s game. On 5.0 innings of work, Connaughton gave up 1 earned run on just 5 hits. He is now 4-3 on the season with an ERA of 2.02.

Despite a somewhat of a quiet night from Notre Dame’s offense, the Irish found a way to win. 3B Eric Jagielo (sac fly) and 1B Trey Mancini (RBI double) provided the runs that were just enough to surpass the Scarlet Knights.

Notre Dame closer Dan Slania earned his 11th save in the game. That puts him 4th on the school’s all time list. But, it wasn’t easy.

Steve Zavala started the inning with a single and was moved into scoring position when Charlie Law produced a sacrifice bunt. Shania locked it down with back-to-back strikeouts to “save the day” for ND.

For the box score, click here.

Notre Dame next’s battle is at Northwestern on Tuesday. The game is expected to start at 2pm ET.

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Image from und.com

With a season-high crowd of 1,113 on hand, Notre Dame (26-22, 12-10 Big East) moved into a tie for sixth place in the conference standings with Rutgers (27-21, 12-10).

“Will was outstanding from beginning to end,” Irish second-year head coach Mik Aokisaid. “He only made two bad pitches all night, and, like he has all season, gave us a good chance to win the game.”

Through 5.2 innings, Hudgins had retired 17 of the first 19 batters, including seven on strikeouts.

“I’ve been successful this year, when I’ve located my fastball and slider to set-up my splitter for strikeouts, and I really accomplished that tonight,” Hudgins said.” -und.com

With no errors on the night, this surely was a complete game for ND and their defense.

Notre Dame’s offense had a strong outing. With 6 out of 8 field players recording hits, the Irish were very sharp from the start.

3B Eric Jagielo was 1 of 3 batters to have a multi-hit game. Jagielo put the Irish on top, 1-0 with a RBI double, something we have see him do a lot this year.

Notre Dame and Rutgers will meet against 2:05 pm ET. on Saturday at Frank Eck Stadium.

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