Feb. 27, 2005
MESA, Ariz. – The 19th-ranked Notre Dame baseball team led three times in a back-and-forth game with Dayton but the Flyers scored the decisive three runs in the top of the 8th before holding on to win the series finale, 11-10, in Sunday afternoon action at HoHoKam Park.
Notre Dame (4-3) and Dayton (5-3) combined for 30 hits and nine errors in a game that at one point saw the teams score in six straight half-innings.
Freshman lefthander David Gruener (0-1) suffered the loss after allowing three runs on three hits in 1.2 innings of relief. Senior lefthander Kaleb Thompson (1-1) picked up the victory despite being touched for six runs (five earned) on eight hits and a walk. Junior righthander Craig Rohren – who entered the bottom of the 9th after a leadoff walk – then picked up the save in his first appearance of the season, allowing a hit but rolling up a double-play ball to end the game.
The loss spoiled three-hit games from senior first baseman Matt Edwards (RBI, run), freshman third baseman Ross Brezovsky (2 R) and junior shortstop Greg Lopez (4 RBI, R).
Both teams left plenty of runners on base (Notre Dame 12, Dayton 13) while unearned runs provided the Irish margin of defeat for the second straight game, with four errors leading to a pair of unearned runs for the Flyers.
Notre Dame sophomore righthander Jeff Samardzija left in the top of the 5th after serving up a leadoff home run to Brandon Godzik that gave Dayton a 5-4 lead. The Irish had jumped out to a 3-0 cushion and later held leads of 6-5 and 9-7 but could not close out the win.
Sophomore DH Danny Dressman’s double was the only extra-base effort among 13 Notre Dame hits while Joe McSoley (double) accounted for Dayton’s only extra-base hit.
Dayton surged to an 11-9 lead with three runs in the 8th, sparked by McSoley’s leadoff double. The first run came home when Todd Presar’s slow rightside roller brought home McSoley from third and Roberto Ramos bunted the runners to second and third before Aaron Hepner sent a two-run single through the right side of a drawn-in infield.
The Irish nearly tied the game in the bottom of the 8th, as Sean Gaston led off with a leadoff single and motored to third on Brezovsky’s one-out single up the middle. Lopez added a sacrifice fly but senior righthander Drew Chesebro took the mound and induced a flyout to leave the tying run at first base.
(Note: due to the quick turnaround between Saturday’s doubleheader and Sunday morning’s game and the Irish getaway schedule, additional game notes from the weekend and photos from the three-game series will be posted on und.com later in the week. For inning-by-inning scoring information, see the statistics linked at the top of this release).
Dayton 0-0-4 0-1-2 1-3-0 – 11 17 5
Notre Dame 2-1-0 1-2-3 0-1-0 – 10 13 4
Phil Ernst (2), Kaleb Thompson (4; W, 1-1), Drew Chesebro (8), Craig Rohren (9; SV, 1) and Aaron Hepner, Josh Burt.
Jeff Samardzija, Wade Korpi (5), Dan Kapala (7), David Gruener (7; L, 1-1), Ryan Doherty (9) and Sean Gaston.
Home Run: Brandon Godzik (UD; solo in 5th, 1st of season).
Doubles: Danny Dressman (ND), Joe McSoley (UD).