Notre Dame baseball – Shawn Stiffler and the Irish are off to a rough start

With the opening series behind the Notre Dame baseball squad and new coach Shawn Stiffler, the Irish have some work to do. As is the case with most levels of baseball throughout the sport, the bats are off to a slower start than the arms. The Irish have 10 hits in 3 games and dropped 2 of their opening 3-game series against Lipscomb in Tennessee.

It’s nothing to be alarmed about, but the Irish certainly have some things to figure out at the plate as the season keeps rolling. Jack Findlay didn’t have the most incredible first outing of the year but struck out 7 in the opener, allowing 2 earned runs. Findlay and others on the bump will need big seasons if the Irish want to return to the postseason in Omaha. As fun as Notre Dame football and basketball games are, that college world series with the Irish in it was an incredible experience.

Link Jarrett led the Irish to a 41-17 record last season before unsurprisingly taking off to Florida State to coach his alma mater. While you can’t blame him, it’s a tough blow to a team that played so well together last year.

Still, Shawn Stiffler was hired for a reason and has had plenty of success in the postseason, especially in the past couple of years. During his time as the head coach for VCU, coach Stiffler went 352-207, including as interim coach, overall while making it to the NCAA Regionals in 2021 and 2022. While they never made it to the finals in Omaha, they did have some tremendous runs under coach Stiffler.

With his apparent recruiting and coaching abilities, the Notre Dame baseball program should be set up for long-term success, it may be challenging to get back to the college world series this year, but they can make a run. Their next chance to get on track will be this Friday at UNC Greensboro in North Carolina in another three game series.