Notre Dame Baseball: Irish Win Opener Against Wright State, 13-7
Irish open regional play with offensive explosion
It was just yesterday that I commented that Notre Dame’s pitching would be the unit to carry them deeper into the tournament if they were to do so. I stand corrected. The Fighting Irish bats did their part in the regional round opener by scoring 13 runs, including a six-run eighth to help put away the Raiders. The Irish hit four home runs to help pace the offense.
Scott Kerrigan got the start for the Irish, but allowed three runs in his three innings and left with the Irish trailing 3-0. But in the bottom of the third, the offense got the Irish right back in the game. Ryan Bull doubled in two runs, followed later in the inning by another two-run double by Robert Youngdahl to put Notre Dame up 4-3.
The Raiders Ryan Fucci hit a solo home run in the top of the sixth, opening the long ball floodgates for both teams. Zak Kutsulis answered right back in the bottom of the sixth to give the Irish the lead back at 5-4.
The Raiders hit two RBI-doubles in the seventh as the as the back-and-forth continued with Wright State taking a 6-5 lead. A two-run homer from Bull in the seventh gave the Irish back the lead, and then the onslaught began. Cavan Biggio hit a three-run shot, followed later in the inning by a two-run double from Ryan Lidge to make it 11-6.
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Youngdahl closed out the scoring with a two-run homer to score Lidge and the rout was on with the Irish up 13-6. Brandon Bielak finished up the game for the Irish and got the win, allowing a home run in the ninth that was of no consequence.
For a team entering this tournament that was considered “one-dimensional”, the Irish showed a side that hadn’t very often this season. While the pitching wasn’t as sharp, the Irish got more than enough offense to help cover and move them to 1-0 in the double-elimination bracket.