KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Notre Dame baseball team (40-15) put on a furious rally in the late innings to knock off No. 1 Tennessee (57-9), 7-3, and advance to the College World Series for the third time in program history. The Irish hit back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning to take their first lead of the game and never looked back.
“These are exceptional guys,” said head coach Link Jarrett. “When you have exceptional character and makeup and focus on what they’re doing, the baseball talent you could see firsthand. When you combine that—and I told him today—there’s no team I’ve ever coached that’s more built for this moment than these guys.”
Trailing 3-1 heading into the seventh, David LaManna tied the game with a two-run home run to the opposite field and leveled the game at 3-3. The very next batter, the Irish took the lead as Jack Brannigan launched a solo blast over the wall in right center.
“Like coach Jarrett said, it’s the last hour on Sunday,” said third baseman Jack Brannigan. “We came in the dugout in the top of seventh and we were talking about ‘last hour on Sunday.’ We’ve talked about it basically since coach Jarrett has been here, and we knew that the last innings were going to be ours.”
“Yeah, I completely agree with (Jack) Brannigan,” said catcher David LaManna. “We’ve been talking about the last hour on Sunday since our first Sunday practice with Coach Jarrett, and it all kind of culminated and came together today.”
Jack Findlay came back out in his third inning of relief with the lead that he would never relinquish. He did not allow a hit over the final three innings and the Irish added three insurance runs in the eighth. With a runner on in the ninth, the Irish turned a 5-4-3 double play to end the game and punch their ticket to Omaha.
It will be the program’s third trip to Omaha in school history and the first in 20 years as the 2002 squad was the last Irish team to do it. They knocked off top-ranked Florida State in three games to book their ticket to Omaha and the team was honored at Frank Eck Stadium earlier this season. The Irish become the first program in NCAA tournament history to win four Super Regional games against No. 1 national seeds in the school’s history.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Tennessee jumped out in front for the second-straight game on Sunday. Luc Lipcius hit his third home run in two days, a solo shot to right center, to give the Volunteers an early 1-0 lead after the first frame.
The Irish tied it up after they manufactured a run across in the top of the second. Jack Zyska beat out an infield single and then stole second and third base. David LaManna grounded out to the shortstop but Zyska scored on the play to make it 1-1.
In the bottom of the second, Tennessee regained the lead with a two-out RBI single to left. After two innings, the Volunteers led 2-1.
Tennessee increased its lead with another run in the bottom of the fifth. Jack Findlay came on from the pen for the second time this weekend and limited the damage to just the one run and the Vols led 3-1 after five.
The Irish turned the game on its head in the seventh inning and it got started with a ground-rule double from Carter Putz. LaManna stepped into the box with two outs and took a fastball the other way that cleared the wall in right to tie the game up. It was just his second home run of the year and got the game tied at 3-3. Brannigan was the next batter and after he touched a ball that went just foul, he crushed a fastball over the wall in left center to give the Irish the lead. His 12th home run of the season gave Notre Dame a 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.
The Irish added three more runs in the top of the eighth for some breathing room. With two outs once again, Putz doubled in the gap in right center to score two runs. Putz scored later in the inning on the RBI single from Jack Zyska. After another scoreless frame from Findlay, the Irish led 7-3 going into the ninth.
In the ninth, the Vols got a base runner on with one out and the Irish defense had one final play in them to close it out. Brannigan fielded the grounder from Evan Russell cleanly, tossed it over to Miller who finished it off with Putz for the double play to end the game and send the Irish to Omaha.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame’s season will continue at the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska next week. The final dates and times for the College World Series will be announced Monday night, June 13, after 7 p.m. ET. The Irish are set to face the winner of the Greenville Super Regional in their first game in Omaha. Notre Dame baseball social channels will have all the news and updates pertaining to times and dates of the Irish games in Omaha.
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