May 18, 2001
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. – Friday’s action at the BIG EAST Conference baseball tournament produced two familiar results: a dominating performance from Notre Dame’s Aaron Heilman followed by another disappointing early exit for the third-ranked Irish from the double-elimination tournament.
Heilman-who carried a perfect game into the seventh inning-led the way in the first game as top-seeded Notre Dame (46-10-1) fought off elimination by defeating rival Rutgers, 6-1, but the Irish couldn’t produce enough offense later in the day while suffering their fourth loss to Virginia Tech this season, 5-2.
Virginia Tech (29-27-1), the tournament’s fourth seed, kept alive its faint hopes for an NCAA Tournament berth but the Hokies must beat Seton Hall twice on Saturday to claim the BIG EAST’s automatic NCAA bid.
Notre Dame now awaits Monday’s announcement of the 64-team NCAA Tournament field, to be shown live on ESPN at 2:00 p.m. EST.
Heilman-whose 14-0 record ties Tom Price (14-5, `94) for the most wins in a season by a Notre Dame pitcher-allowed just six hits from 23rd-ranked Rutgers (40-15), with one other ball leaving the infield on a first-inning flyout. His 27 outs included 12 strikeouts (tying the second-most of his career), 10 groundball outs, three infield popups and a runner caught overrunning a base.
Notre Dame jumped out to a 5-0 lead after four innings versus Rutgers lefthander Buddy Gallagher (6-4), with four of the runs coming via the long ball thanks to solo home runs from Brian Stavisky and Matt Strickroth and Alec Porzel’s two-run shot.
Leadoff batter Brian Ciemniecki was the first RU batter to reach base versus Heilman, after sending the first pitch in the bottom of the seventh into left-center field. The Knights used a walk and two more hits in the inning to forge a 6-2 game but Heilman left two runners on base, catching Todd Speedy looking at a 2-2 pitch (one of Heilman’s seven called Ks in the game) before forcing Ryan Lillis into a rally-ending groundout.
Virginia Tech righthander Jason Bush (5-5) became the latest in a long list of opposing pitchers to beat Notre Dame at the BIG EAST Tournament with a complete game (dating back to the 1998 title-game loss to Rutgers). Bush’s 105-pitch outing included seven hits and one walk allowed, with four strikeouts.
Heilman has won 24 of his last 25 decisions (the lone loss came to Rutgers in the final weekend of the regular season) and tied a 91-year-old Notre Dame record by tossing his 11th game of the season (Billy Ryan had 11 CGs in 1910).
Notre Dame manufactured a first-inning run to get an early jump on Tech but the Hokies scored twice versus J.P. Gagne (5-4) in the fifth inning before adding three more runs in the seventh.
The Irish have now been beaten twice by the same team in five of their six BIG EAST Tournament appearances (all but 1999).
ND RHP AARON HEILMAN: “Sometimes you just go out there and you feel good. I cruised through the first couple of innings and just tried to maintain my focus and tried to run with it. … Everybody on our team came out swinging the bat aggressively and putting together good swings so I knew we were going to be allright. … We’ve been in this situation before and just had to come out here and play our best ball and we did that. … I was able to command my fastball and my breaking pitches for strikes in the early half of the game. I was able to work both sides of the plate and keep the hitters off-balance.”
ND HEAD COACH PAUL MAINIERI: “The fact that he kept his pitch count down at the start of the game allowed him to be strong at the end of the game which keeps our bullpen rested.”
RUTGERS LHP BUDDY GALLAGHER: “I think (Heilman) can get in your head a little bit. You see his stats and everybody knows who he is. But also there is the aggressive factor. Everybody gets pumped up to play him. Today, he just shut us down. … That (outing) seems to be pretty typical of (Heilman). He was hitting his spots real well.”
RUTGERS 2B MATT WOLSKI: “You know the kid is good and I hope that was his best stuff-because if it’s not, you don’t have a chance.”
RUTGERS HEAD COACH FRED HILL: “We probably looked at two many third strikes and you can’t do that against a pitcher like him. (Heilman) has excellent rotation. He’s not necessarily overpowering but he has a good slider, excellent location, he doesn’t make many mistakes and he keeps the ball down.”
#3 Notre Dame (46-10-1) 0-2-2 1-0-0 1-0-0 – 6 11 0
#23 Rutgers (40-15) 0-0-0 0-0-0 2-0-0 – 2 6 1
Aaron Heilman (W, 14-0) and Paul O’Toole.
Buddy Gallagher (L, 6-4), Tom Crohan (8) and Mike Popowski.
Home Runs: Brian Stavisky, ND (solo in 2nd, 6th of season), Alec Porzel, ND (1 on in 3rd, 7th of season), Matt Strickroth, ND (solo in 4th, 4th of season).
Doubles: Paul O’Toole (ND), Val Majewski (RU).
#3 Notre Dame (46-11-1) 1-0-0 0-0-0 0-1-0 – 2 7 0
Virginia Tech (29-27-1) 0-0-0 0-2-0 3-0-X – 5 10 0
J.P. Gagne (L, 5-4), Brandon Viloria (7) and Paul O’Toole.
Jason Bush (W, 5-5) and Jed English.
Doubles: Alec Porzel (ND), Matt Strickroth (ND), Brian Stavisky (ND), Marc Tugwell 2 (VT), Christian Simmers (VT), Addison Bowman (VT).