April 29, 2001
JAMAICA, N.Y. (4/29/01) — Sophomore righthander J.P. Gagne notched another quality performance by the Notre Dame pitching staff while senior shortstop Alec Porzel’s three RBI highlighted a 12-hit attack, as the Irish-ranked as high as first in the national polls-all but clinched the BIG EAST Conference regular-season title after completing a three-game sweep at St. John’s with a 7-3 victory Sunday at McCallen Field.
Notre Dame (40-6-1, 18-2 BIG EAST) won its 16th consecutive BIG EAST game while lowering its magic number to 1 for clinching the conference title, with six games still remaining. Seton Hall (12-7-1) now is the only team left that can finish ahead of the Irish in the BIG EAST standings but the Pirates would have to sweep Boston College and West Virginia while hoping for ND to be swept by Connecticut and BC.
The Irish have won 40-plus games in each of the last 13 seasons, representing the nation’s fourth-longest active streak behind Florida State (23), Wichita State (23) and Clemson (15)-with each of those teams yet to have reached the 40-win plateau in 2001. The 2001 squad has reached 40 wins quicker than any previous ND team (the 1990 Irish started 40-10).
Notre Dame has completed the challenging task of sweeping a pair of three-game BIG EAST road series this season, after doing so just twice (in 10 chances) during the previous five seasons. The Irish also won three games at second-place Rutgers on April 7-8.
Gagne (5-2) did not allow a hit or walk until the fifth inning, when St. John’s (26-18, 13-10) plated a single run before scoring again in the sixth. Gagne ultimately gave up five hits and two walks in his seven-inning outing, with five strikeouts and 11 groundouts.
Porzel’s 2-for-4 day included an RBI double in the first inning and his 33rd career home run in the ninth, when he followed a Steve Sollmann triple by launching the next pitch from lefthanded reliever Todd Klem over the leftfield fence for his third homer of the season.
Junior third baseman Andrew Bushey wrapped up a strong weekend by batting 2-for-2 with three RBI. Junior catcher Paul O’Toole collected three hits, including an RBI single and run scored as the Irish pushed their lead to 5-2 in the eighth.
Matt Buchmeier picked up his second save of the season, with the junior righthander allowing two hits and a run over the final two innings. Gagne followed up Saturday’s outings by senior righthanders Aaron Heilman and Danny Tamayo to complete an impressive weekend by the Irish starters. The threesome allowed just four runs, four walks and 10 hits in 23 innings of work, with 22 strikeouts and 37 groundouts (accounting for 59 of the 69 outs).
The Red Storm were close to forging a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the seventh, after Chad Cambra’s leadoff triple to left-center eluded diving junior centerfielder Steve Stanley. But Gagne forced a flyout to shallow left from Brian Hedgecock and Jason Fischette failed to make contact on the ensuing squeeze play, with O’Toole chasing Cambra back towards third before throwing to Bushey for the huge out.
Stanley’s walk, Sollmann’s sacrifice and Porzel’s double yielded an early lead and gave the Irish a 28-1 first-inning scoring edge in BIG EAST games this season.
NOTES: Rutgers (15-8) and idle Seton Hall (12-7-1) have the best chances of joining ND in the four-team BIG EAST Tournament while Virginia Tech (13-9-1) currently holds down fourth, with four other teams within two games of VT in the loss column: SJU (13-10), UConn (12-11), WVU (9-11) and BC (7-11) … ND now leads the SJU series 10-5, including four straight … ND is 34 games over .500 (the team record is +35, at 45-10 in 1990) … ND’s stats in BIG EAST games this season include a .332 team batting avg. and 2.41 ERA … ND’s nation-leading team ERA rose slightly from 2.50 to 2.51 … the Irish are 56-14 in BIG EAST play during the past three seasons … the ’99 ND team (20-5) is the only BIG EAST squad ever to win more than 18 regular-season BIG EAST games … Porzel moved into a tie with Joe Binkiewicz (’92) for 7th on the ND career HR charts, one behind 3-year player Ryan Topham (’93-’95) … the Irish are 15-0 this season vs. teams that posted wins over ND in 2000 … O’Toole has a jumpstart on the strong play in May he displayed in 1999 and 2000, as he leads the team in the current 19-1 run with a .407 batting avg. … Bushey’s BIG EAST batting avg. not sits at .443.
#1 Notre Dame (40-6-2, 18-2 BIG EAST) 1-1-0 1-0-0 0-2-2 – 7 12 2
St. John’s (26-19, 13-10 BIG EAST) 0-0-0 0-1-1 0-0-1 – 3 7 0
J.P. Gagne (W, 5-2), J.P. Buchmeier (8) and Paul O’Toole.
Jon Reid, Todd Klem (8) and Eric Potts.
Home Run: Alec Porzel, ND (1 on in 9th, 3rd of season).
Triples: Steve Sollmann (ND), Chad Cambra (SJU).
Doubles: Alec Porzel (ND), Matt Strickroth (ND), Kris Billmaier (ND), Andrew Bushey (ND), Ken Meyer (ND), Anthony DeRosa (SJU).