March 3, 2002
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Steve Stanley and fellow senior Matt Bok continued to spark the Notre Dame offense, combining for seven hits, two RBI and three runs scored as the Irish baseball team closed its play at the Homestead Challenge with Sunday’s 4-1 win over Sacred Heart University.
Notre Dame (4-3) emerged with the victory despite playing without five injured starters, including senior catcher Paul O’Toole, sophomore second baseman Steve Sollmann and freshman DH Matt Macri, who was dinged up in Saturday’s game vs. FIU but did hit a pinch-hit sacrifice fly on Sunday’s game (senior third baseman Andrew Bushey and junior leftfielder Brian Stavisky did not make the trip due to shoulder spains).
Junior righthander Peter Ogilvie picked up the win, pushing his career record with the Irish to 6-1. Ogilvie worked out of several jams while allowing the one run on six hits and no walks in his five innings of work, with four strikeouts. Freshman righthander Martin Vergara then held the lead into the ninth (allowing three hits and one walk, with five Ks).
Junior righthander Matt Laird then came on to record the save versus hot-hitting Matt Lemanczyk, representing the tying run with runners on first and second. Laird worked ahead in the count (1-2) before inducing a groundout to the right side for the game’s final out.
Stanley (4-for-5, 2 R) and Bok (3-for-5, 2 RBI, R) combined with freshman shortstop Matt Edwards for a solid 1-2-3 part of the lineup that accounted for nine of Notre Dame’s 10 hits.
Sophomore righthander Dan Scott took the loss, yielding three runs on nine hits and three walks over six innings (with seven Ks) in the season opener for the Pioneers.
Notre Dame claimed the lead with two runs in the fifth, sparked by Stanley’s leadoff bunt. Bok then sent the next pitch to right field, with Stanley scooting to third on the single and scoring when Scott was called for a balk. Edwards then delivered an 0-2 single down the leftfield line and Macri plated Bok with a pinch-hit sacrifice fly to deep center field.
The Irish capped the scoring in the eighth, with senior Matt Strickroth drawing a pinch-hit walk versus righthanded reliever Lee Nastu before moving up on an errant pickoff throw and scoring on Bok’s 1-0 single to left-center.
Lemanczyk – who went 3-for-5, after batting .392 in 2001 – sent the first pitch of the game into the left-center gap for a triple before scoring on Jamie Schilkowski’s two-out single through the left side. The Irish then tied the game in the third, thanks to Stanley’s first-pitch single to left-center and Bok’s RBI double to right on a 1-0 pitch.
Notes: Bok is batting a team-best .500 for the season (10-for-20), including an 8-for-14 effort in Homestead (2 RBI, 3 R, 2 2B0 … Stanley is batting .438 overall (14-for-32), after going 10-for-18 on the trip (RBI, 5 R, 2B, BB, 3 SB, SAC) … Stanley’s four hits give him 280 for his career, moving past former teammate Alec Porzel (279) into third in ND history … his 187 career runs are tied with Scott Sollmann for 6th in ND history.
Sacred Heart (0-1) 1-0-0 0-0-0 0-0-0 – 1 9 3
Notre Dame (4-3) 0-0-1 0-2-0 0-1-X – 4 10 0
Dan Scott (L, 0-1), Lee Nastu (7) and Brian Rojee.
Peter Ogilvie (W, 1-0), Martin Vergara (6) and Matt Laird (9, SV, 1).
Doubles: Steve Stanley (ND), Matt Bok (ND), Matt Lemanczyk (SH).
Triple: Lemanczyk