It’s hardly a total shock, but it appears that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team isn’t going to earn an at-large bid to the regionals, given the way the conference tournaments are shaking out. That’s despite being in fairly decent shape when Shawn Stiffler’s crew started the ACC Tournament.
As it turns out, losing in the first round to a lower seed in Boston College did the squad some serious damage on the RPI front, dropping them eight spots from safely in at 40 to safely out at No. 48 as the last day of the regular season arrives.
Baseball America’s bracketology on Saturday had the Notre Dame Fighting Irish pushed even further out of the bracket than they were entering the weekend. On Friday, Stiffler’s squad was considered a first-four-out. On Saturday, they got bumped to the next four-out.
The first four out now are Virginia (ACC), Cal Poly (Big West), Xavier (Big East), and Nebraska (Big Ten) while the next four out are UTRGV (Southland) Notre Dame, Jacksonville State (CUSA), and Texas A&M (SEC). It’s worth noting that none of this is set in stone, but the Cavs were considered “in” on Friday and are now also missing the field.
ACC set to crown its tournament champion
One can now only wonder what would have happened if the ACC had kept the tournament formant it’s been using for the last few years. Could Notre Dame have found a way to charge back into contention?
The what ifs are for another time. For now, Irish fans will just have to sit and watch either Clemson or North Carolina take home the conference title. The two teams will do battle on Sunday morning.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish looking to steal one from Penn State
Over on the gridiron, Marcus Freeman continues what has been a crazy hot streak. The latest example of this is landing in the final favorites for 4-star offensive lineman Grayson McKeogh.
McKeogh is setting his final visit dates and locked down a trip to South Bend on June 13. That’s sandwiched in between visits ot Texas and Penn State. A final decision should come in July.