SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The sixth-ranked Notre Dame baseball team (20-5, 8-4 ACC) finished off a wire-to-wire sweep with a 9-3 win over Clemson (19-12, 2-9 ACC) Sunday afternoon at Frank Eck Stadium. The Irish never trailed the entire series for their second-straight ACC series sweep and their eighth win in a row.
The pitching staff put together a weekend to remember as they held the Tigers to three or fewer runs in all three games and the Irish outscored the Tigers 21-5 over the course of the series. Roman Kimball earned his third win of the season after 2.1 innings of relief on Sunday. Alex Rao tossed the final 3.2 innings without allowing a hit to earn his first save of the year.
The Irish earned their seventh ACC sweep under head coach Link Jarret over the past two-plus seasons. That matches the number of ACC sweeps the Irish had in their first six years since joining the conference.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish jumped out to an early lead after scoring a run in the opening inning. Jared Miller had a great dirt ball read to advance to second and then made it to third on a throwing error from the catcher. Carter Putz continued his strong weekend by taking a pitch the other way and it dropped into right field for a single. Miller scored on the play and the Irish led 1-0 after one.
Will Mercer got it started for the Irish on the mound and he scattered three hits and a walk in 3.0 innings of work. He kept the Tigers off the scoreboard before handing it over to the bullpen.
The Tigers tied the game in the fourth inning with a solo home run from Max Wagner. Later in the inning, Clemson got the go-ahead run to third but Kimball got a strikeout to end the inning and keep the game tied at 1-1.
The tie did not last long as the Irish had a big inning in the bottom of the fourth to regain the lead. Back-to-back doubles opened the inning to get the Irish back in front when Jack Zyska doubled off the wall to score Brooks Coetzee III from second. Jack Brannigan added another run to the Irish lead when he reached on a fielder’s choice and scored Zyska on the play. With two outs and two runners on, Putz cleared the bases with a double into the gap in right center. His second hit of the game increased the Irish lead to 5-1.
Notre Dame extended its lead in the bottom of the fifth with a sacrifice fly from Spencer Myers. The flyout scored Danny Neri from third and the Irish were up 6-1.
Clemson fought back in the sixth, scoring twice off of back-to-back home runs to trim the Irish lead to 6-3.
The Irish added an insurance run in the seventh and two in the eighth. Myers tallied his second RBI of the game with a single in the seventh. In the eighth, Miller and Ryan Cole both hit solo home runs to increase the advantage to 9-3.
UP NEXT
The Irish will close out the homestand on Tuesday night as they host rival Michigan at Frank Eck Stadium. Tuesday’s game has been moved up to a 5:30 p.m. ET start and it will be streamed on the ACC Network Extra. Admission is free for all fans this season at Frank Eck Stadium.
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