Maybe it’s a good thing that the Notre Dame baseball team’s win streak is officially over. After all, it had to end at some point. What better time than a midweek game against Purdue that doesn’t matter much in the long run.
The Irish came into Tuesday evening’s game with a whopping 8 game winning streak, easily the longest of the 2025 season. The winning streak was especially interesting because it came at just the time of the season when head coach Shawn Stiffler seemed to have lost his team. In fact, Notre Dame was struggling so much that it felt as though Stiffler might not last the year.
Notre Dame baseball’s streak ends, but key series could reignite momentum
Then the team reeled off win after win after win. Until Notre Dame ran into a Purdue team that is far from a juggernaut. And then ND got pummeled 11-5.
The Boilermakers got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first with five runs, four of which were unearned, to gain the early advantage. After the Irish were retired in the top of the second, Purdue plated two more runs in the bottom half of the inning to go up 7-0. After that, it was all basically scholastic.
On the one hand, losing to a team that is in the 130s in RPI is never a good thing. On the other, their win streak, especially two straight ACC series wins has gotten the Fighting Irish into the conversation as an at-large squad as they currently sit at No. 49 in the RPI rankings.
That’s safely in the “might make the postseason” territory.
This weekend, the Notre Dame baseball team takes on No. 22 Louisville. If the Blue and Gold could find a way to win that series, things get very, very interesting and this loss to Purdue will be largely forgotten.