March 21, 2008
BETHESDA, Md. – Notre Dame senior Wade Korpi tossed 7.0 strong innings and junior Casey Martin belted a pair of home runs and drove in five to lead the Irish past Georgetown, 7-1, in BIG EAST baseball action from Shirley Povich Field Friday. Notre Dame improves to 9-7 overall and 2-0 in the league, while the Hoyas drop to 7-11 and 1-4.
Martin (Chesterton, Ind.) went 2-for-4 with a two-run and three-run home run. He is the first Notre Dame player to hit a pair of home runs in a single game since Mike Dury did so against Dayton on March 14 of last season.
Korpi (Lake Worth, Fla.) (3-1) battled control issues over the first two innings, walking three of the first five Hoyas, but settled down and picked up his third consecutive victory. In his last three starts (today, Southern Illinois and South Alabama), Korpi is 3-0 with a 1.47 earned run average. In fact, he has allowed just one earned run over his last 16.2 innings.
After allowing a single run in the bottom of the third inning, Korpi was in total control. The southpaw retired the next 12 Georgetown batters before yielding a bad-hop single to open the Hoya seventh inning. Korpi would work around the leadoff single (batter moved to second on an error) by retiring the next three Georgetown hitters.
In all, Korpi retired 15 of the final 16 Hoyas he faced. He allowed just four hits and one earned run over 7.0 innings. Korpi fanned four and walked three. The 7.0 inning outing for Korpi was his longest of the season and longest since he went 7.0 against UConn on April 30, 2006.
The Irish grabbed a 2-0 lead thanks to Martin in the top of the third inning. Martin belted Gaggioli’s 0-1 offering deep over the left field scoreboard for a two-run home run. The blast was Martin’s first of his Irish career (had four last season at Indiana State). The blast was the first surrendered by Gaggioli in 18.0 innings of work this season.
Martin struck again in the top of the sixth inning, and again off Gaggioli. With runners on first and second, the first baseman hammered another 0-1 offering from the Hoyas’ starter over the left field wall to give the Irish a 5-1 lead.
Gaggioli (0-2), who entered the game with a sparkling 1.12 earned run average over his first two starts of the year, was charged with five runs, all earned, on six hits over 6.0 innings of work. He walked four and struck out three in a losing effort. Gaggioli was the reigning BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week following his 13-strikeout, complete game outing against UConn.
Senior Ross Brezovsky (Naples, Fla.) went 2-for-3 with a pair of runs and senior Sean Gaston (Brownsburg, IN) went 3-for-3 with an RBI double and two runs scored.
Notre Dame has outscored Georgetown, 32-2, over the first two games of the series.
Notre Dame returns to action with the third and final game of the series Saturday afternoon. First-pitch is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. Sophomore right-handed hurler Eric Maust (Alpharetta, Ga.) will take the mound for the Irish. The game can heard live on ESPN Radio 1490 AM and UND.com.
–ND–