Notre Dame Baseball: Irish go 2-1 in 2020 Alamo Irish Classic

The Notre Dame baseball team went 2-1 in this weekend’s Alamo Irish Classic, which was played at Wolff Stadium in San Antonio, Texas.

The Notre Dame men’s baseball team once again played in the Alamo Irish Classic, a four-day round-robin tournament played at Wolff Stadium in San Antonio, Texas. This year’s tournament featured the University of Notre Dame, The University of Incarnate Word, the University of Toledo and the University of Texas at San Antonio.

After the first game of the tournament between Notre Dame and Incarnate Word was canceled due to inclement weather, the Irish would go one to face Incarnate Word on the second day of the tournament, played on Friday, February 21st.

Notre Dame would give the Cardinals of Incarnate Word a beating, as they would emerge victorious by the score of 12-1. The Irish scored in six of the first seven innings of the game, leading to the dominant victory over Incarnate Word in the process.

Notre Dame pitcher Tommy Sheehan would pitch a gem, going six innings, while giving up five hits, no walks, and zero runs. Sheehan would rack up five strikeouts against the Cardinals en route to his second win of the season. So far, Sheehan has given up only one run in 13 innings pitched and has a 2-0 record to begin the season.

Eric Gilgenbach would provide a pinch-hit three-run home run for Notre Dame, his second on the season, while Spencer Myers would go 3 for 4 at the plate with two runs scored, a run batted in and two stolen bases in the contest.

Freshman Dominic Cancellieri would pick up his first career save with the Irish after going three innings in relief for Notre Dame in the victory. On the afternoon Notre Dame would compile 13 hits against Incarnate Word.

In game three of the tournament, Notre Dame would defeat the University of Toledo by a score of 9-2, played on Saturday, February 22nd. Tommy Vail would be the hero of the game for the Irish, collecting the win in 5 1/3 innings of relief that saw him surrender just one hit while striking out nine batters. At one point in the game, Vail would retire six Rockets batters in a row via strikeout.

Notre Dame would steal six bases against Toledo, with Spencer Myers accounting for three of those stolen bases. It marked the third time in the Irish career of Myers that he has stolen at least three bases in a game.

While the end result was a seven-run win for the Irish, the game was actually very close through the first 5 innings. In the bottom of the fifth inning, the game was tied at 2-2 before Notre Dame broke it open with three runs in the bottom of the fifth, two runs in the sixth and two more runs in the eighth inning.

However, the Irish would drop the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, losing 4-1 to the University of Texas at San Antonio. The game was a pitchers duel between Notre Dame’s Alex Rao and UTSA’s Shane Daughety, who kept the game scoreless until the sixth inning.

Joe Boyle would be the hard-luck loser of the game, taking the loss despite not surrendering an earned run in the game. Boyle would come un in relief of Rao and pitch an inning in the game. In the process, he would give up three unearned runs and struck out three batters, as the Irish defense was suspect behind him.

Shane Daughety did an excellent job of keeping Notre Dame in check for the Roadrunners, pitching six innings while giving up four hits, one walk, zero runs and striking out six Irish batters on the afternoon.

Notre Dame catcher Jack Alexander would provide the Irish with their lone run of the day, hitting an RBI for the Irish in the ninth. Ultimately, the run production would not be enough to overcome the four runs that UTSA put up and the Irish would lose the game.

The 2-1 record in the Alamo Irish Classic brings Notre Dame’s record to 4-2 early in the season. The Irish close out the month of February with a three-game series against Presbyterian in Clinton, South Carolina beginning next Friday.