April 18, 2007
By Pete LaFleur
“That’s something I’ve never seen before” has been a common phrase uttered by players and coaches alike during Notre Dame’s topsy-turvy 2007 baseball season. Typically, such observations have followed baserunning gaffes, defensive miscues, fluke plays or other blooper-reel material. Wednesday night at Eck Stadium provided a different kind of rarity – a 1-0, 10-inning Irish victory over Purdue that produced the kind of special memory that will prompt anyone who was present to proudly proclaim – “I was at that game.”
Both coaching staffs had a planned rotation in place, hoping to chop up the game among multiple pitchers so that those arms also could be available for the respective conference series this weekend. Those plans quickly became abbreviated and ultimately were thrown out the window, as Notre Dame sophomore lefthander Sam Elam and Purdue rookie righthander Matt Bischofff combined to allow no hits through the first seven-plus innings. Elam – who walked six (all in the first six innings) – ultimately allowed his only hit with two outs in the 8th while Bischoff’s perfect game ended on a leadoff single from Jeremy Barnes in the bottom of the 9th.
The only other hits all night came in the bottom of the 10th, as Matt Weglarz pulled a leadoff double down the leftfield line, moved up on a wild pitch and trotted home with the winning run two batters later when Danny Dressman flared one of his trademark opposite-field singles into left field.
The game featured several highlight-reel defensive plays, most notably a diving stab and ensuing throw by Notre Dame shortstop Brett Lilley (who has no errors in his past 15 games) with runners on second and third. Purdue first baseman Jeff Mojzik later made a strong defensive play of his own while centerfielder Jon Moore added a lunging catch deep in the whole to rob the Irish of another sure double.
Prior to the 1-0 win over South Florida in the opener of that series four weeks ago (March 23, at Eck Stadium), it had been five years and 316 games since the Irish had played in a game that ended 1-0 and extended to at least nine innings (April 1, 2002; when J.P. Gagne went the distance to beat BYU). Now, it has happened twice in a span of 27 days (and 17 games) – with Elam joining his classmate David Phelps (who beat USF) as Notre Dame pitchers who have gone the full nine innings in a game that ended up 1-0.
A check of the Notre Dame record books back to at least 1992 (pending further research) reveals no other seasons in which an Irish team has played two different 1-0 games that have gone at least nine innings, thus linking Phelps and Elam in that unique combination of pitching excellence under the high pressure of a 1-0 (or 0-0) score.
The rarity of any 1-0 game can be seen in the fact that only eight Notre Dame games in the past 15 seasons – spanning 916 games – have yielded that score (all won by the Irish), and three of those 1-0 finals were 7-inning games. Most college baseball observers rarely see a game go nine innings without any runs – but that actually happened to Notre Dame in the 2006 season, with Arizona going on to win that game in 10 innings (2-0; on March 5, 2006, at the Metrodome in Minneapolis).
Elam joins Phelps among the 11 different Notre Dame pitchers since 1995 (done a total of 16 times) to pitch nine shutout innings in a game. This marks the second straight season in which the Irish pitching staff has produced multiple 9-inning solo shutouts, with departed LHP Tom Thornton (4-0 win over Southern Illinois) and current junior LHP Wade Korpi (2-0 vs. Western Michigan) both going the full 9.0 without allowing a run during 2006 games. The four seasons prior to `06 (2002-05) each did not feature more than one game in which an Irish pitcher logged a 9-inning solo shutout.
Notre Dame pitchers have combined to throw 9-inning shutouts 16 times since 1995, with Elam being the only one to do so while allowing only one hit. Gagne, Phelps and Elam are the only Irish pitchers in the past 13 seasons to log nine shutout innings in a 1-0 game.
Elam was four outs away from securing a rare no-hit stat line through 9.0 innings. It’s been nearly 60 years since a Notre Dame pitching staff produced a 9-inning no-hitter, dating back to a 1949 win over Pensacola (when Bob Nemes, Dick Smullen and Tony Lipton combined for no hits allowed, as part of a 12-0 win). One has to go back 10 years earlier than that game to find a solo 9-inning no-hitter by a Notre Dame pitcher, with that rare feat turned in by Mike Mandjiak in a 1939 win over the University of Chicago (5-0).
The most recent solo no-hitters in the Notre Dame record book both came in 7-inning games, by RHP Brian Piotrowicz in 1988 (2-0 vs. Ball State; 5/11/88) and LHP Don Wolfe 13 years earlier (10-0 vs. Butler; 4/20/75).
The previous time that Notre Dame has turned in a one-hitter during a 9-inning game was the record-setting 25-1 win over South Alabama to open the 2002 NCAA Regional at Eck Stadium (6/1/02). Then-freshman Grant Johnson – who currently pitches for the single-A Daytona Cubs – faced only 30 batters that day while allowing just one hit and one walk (plus a pair of hit batters and 8 Ks) in the full 9.0 innings. Johnson that day became only the 13th pitcher ever to post a no-hitter or one-hitter in the NCAAs and was just the fourth to do so since 1981.
Johnson’s classmate and fellow righthander Chris Niesel threw a one-hitter in the 7-inning opener of the 2003 showdown series with West Virginia (5/3/03, also at Eck Stadium). Niesel allowed only a bunt single in the 7th, facing just 23 batters with a walk and 9 Ks.
Three years prior to the one-hit win over South Alabama, the Irish posted an historic one-hit victory over the University of Miami (1-0; 5/12/99), when Alex Shilliday, Chris McKeown and Aaron Heilman combined to nearly no-hit the Hurricanes. Miami’s only hit in that classic battle came with two outs and a 1-2 count in the 9th. (Additional research will be needed to find the last time an ND pitcher logged a game with nine innings of solo 1-hit ball.).
Notre Dame (19-17) – victorious in six of its past seven games and now 10-4 at home this season – won in thrilling fashion for the second straight night, following Tuesday’s comeback from a 5-0 deficit to defeat Toledo, 8-7, with a run in the 9th. It also marked the third straight tightly-contested battle between Notre Dame and Purdue (16-14), with the Irish winning the 2005 game in 12 innings (9-7 at Coveleski Stadium, on Craig Cooper’s 2-run home run) before riding the strong pitching of Korpi to win the 2-1 game in 2006.
Purdue’s only run in the 2006 game versus Notre Dame came in the 1st inning, meaning that the Irish have held the Boilermakers scoreless for 21 straight innings spanning the past two meetings. Notre Dame actually has not allowed an earned run by Purdue in 25 consecutive innings (the ’06 run was unearned) and has surrendered just one earned run to the Boilermakers (the 9th-inning score in ’05 that forced extra-innings) in a span of 29 innings.
The past two ND-Purdue games (2:07 in ’06 and 2:16 in ’07) have covered a total time of just 4:23, in stark contrast to the 2005 marathon between the teams that lasted nearly four hours by itself (3:51). The teams have combined for just four runs and 13 hits in the past two series meetings, with 35 of the 37 half-innings from those games placing zeroes on the lonely scoreboard.
Notre Dame entered the week ranked 19th in the nation with a 3.31 staff ERA, a number that now has dropped to 3.25 (which would rank 2nd-best by an Irish staff in the past 15 years). The only Irish pitching staff since 1992 to finish with a season ERA lower than 3.25 was the 2001 pitching group that was fronted by current big-leaguer Heilman and his fellow senior standout Danny Tamayo – and the current staff is just .03 behind that 2001 team ERA (3.22). Stretching back even further, going back some 30 years (to the mid-1970s), only three Irish teams in that span have finished with an ERA better than the 2007 staff’s current mark: 1990 (3.00), 1992 (3.06) and 2001.
The Irish pitchers have allowed just 10 earned runs in the current six-game homestand, for a lowly 1.64 ERA in that stretch. The Notre Dame staff has limited the opposition to a .225 combined batting average in the homestand, with 51 strikeouts, just 24 walks and 10 more innings pitched (55) than hits allowed (45) over the past six games.
Elam – who knocked his 6.00 season ERA down to 3.75 – allowed just three balls to reach the outfield in his full 9.0 innings. His 27 outs included a career-high nine strikeouts (of seven different batters), 12 groundouts, two infield popups, two flyouts, another ball caught by the centerfielded Dressman just beyond the infield dirt, and a pickoff move that caught a runner going on first movement. Three of Elam’s punchouts came on called third strikes and he located 73 of his 122 pitches in the zone. Despite his six walks, Elam allowed only one leadoff baserunner all night and faced just four baserunners in scoring position (only one reached third, see below).
Bischoff amazingly threw just 11 balls out of the strike zone in the first seven innings and did not work to a 2-ball count on any of the first 20 batters he faced (although five straight ND hitters then reached at least a 2-ball count). The Purdue freshman had seven strikeouts and nine groundouts among his 27 outs while allowing just the one hit and lowering his season ERA to 1.91. He averaged less than 10 pitches per inning, locating nearly 75% of those pitches for strikes (64 of 86), and needed just 36 pitches to get through the 5th (he then totaled 50 pitches in the 6th-9th, including 27 in the 8th and 9th). Bischoff threw 86% of his pitches for strikes fomr the 1st-5th (31 of 36) and ended the 7th still with an 81% strike rate (48 of 59).
Notre Dame entered the current homestand just 1-4 in its first five one-run games of the season but now has received some positive karma in those close battles, winning three times over the past nine days by one-run margins (also 3-2 vs. IPFW and the 8-7 game with Toledo).
Junior righthander Tony Langford (2-0) – who also was the winning pitcher in the 2005 extra-inning game with Purdue – allowed a leadoff runner to reach when he bobbled a groundball in the 10th, but Langford recovered for a strikeout, flyout and groundout (with a runner on second) to leave the game scoreless.
Freshman lefthander Matt Jansen (0-1) took the mound for Purdue in the 10th, with two lefthanders and the switch-hitting Mike Dury due up among the next five Irish batters. Jansen induced a flyout to right field from leadoff batter A.J. Pollock before the lefthanded-hitting Ross Brezovsky fouled out to the leftfielder. Purdue then was one strike away from sending the game to the 11th, but Weglarz continued his recent clutch hitting by pulling a 2-2 pitch down the leftfield line. A wild pitch moved Weglarz to third and Jansen opted to walk Dury on four pitches and face the lefthander-hitting Dressman with the game on the line.
Dressman actually entered the game hitting 80 points higher this season vs. LHPs (.393) than RHPs (.313) and his confidence in the at-bat showed itself on the first pitch, as the senior co-captain sent a dipping single that landed in front of the leftfielder to end the game.
Elam – who had a standout 2006 summer season with the Jayhawk League’s Hays Larks – has been projected by Baseball America as the BIG EAST Conference’s top prospect for the 2008 Major League draft (he will be able to showcase his talents on an even bigger stage this summer, with the Cape Cod League’s Falmouth Commodores). As one of seven different Irish pitchers who have been shuttled into the top-three starter roles this season, Elam had the chance on Wednesday to give his team a much-needed boost and the big lefthander made the most of his opportunity.
Control has been a problem for Elam in the 2007 season (11 Ks, 11 BB in 15 IP entering the game) and some misfires produced a jam right out of the chute, as 2-hole hitter Alex Jaffee walked on a full-count and the lefthanded-hitting Ryne White followed with his own one-out walk (on four pitches). Elam quickly squelched the threat, with Jeff Mojzik going down swinging at a 2-2 pitch and Dan Black grounding out to the shortstop Lilley.
The later innings saw Elam improve on his breaking-ball location while still touching 93 miles-an-hour on his fastball into the 8th. Bischoff lived all night on tremendous control with both his fastball and slider while doing an effective job hiding the ball, yielding a deceptive delivery that helped keep the Irish hitters off-balance.
After the 1st-inning jam, Elam retired nine straight before walking the cleanup batter Mojzik on four pitches, with one out in the 4th. Moments later, Mojzik flinched as Elam threw over and the runner was erased on a 1-3-6 pickoff play. Another one-out walk followed in the 5th (by Eric Nielsen, again on four pitches) and the runner advanced on Moore’s leftside groundout – but Elam forced Nick Overmyer to tap back to the box for the third out.
Purdue’s leadoff batter Ingaldson drew a five-out walk to start the 6th, followed by a wild pitch and Jaffee’s sacrifice bunt. The Notre Dame infield then played in, right on the edge of the grass, and the strategy worked to perfection when White pulled a groundball to the right side. Second baseman Jeremy Barnes knocked the ball down and checked the runner before throwing out White for the second out. Elam then lost Mojzik on a full-count walk and a stolen base put two runners in scoring position, with 5-hole hitter Dan Black at the plate.
Black fell behind in the count (1-2) before drilling a low shot up the middle. Lilley’s uncanny anticipation of the play saw the All-America candidate leap to his left to stab the ball in full extension. Many observers assumed the play to be a lineout but the ball actually had skipped, with Black appearing to have slowed down initially as the ball looked to be headed to the outfield for a two-run single. Lilley had just enough time to gather himself and fire the ball over to the first baseman Dury, as Elam and the Irish escaped in a stunning display by their defensive leader.
Brezovsky’s foulout to the leftfielder to end the 7th marked the first time that Bischoff went to a 2-ball count all night (2-0). Earlier in that half-inning, Pollock led off by going the other way on an 0-1 pitch for a probable double down the rightfield line – but the first baseman Mojzik turned in his own web gem and tossed to the pitcher covering for the first out.
Jaffee broke up Elam’s no-hitter with two outs in the 8th, sending a 1-2 pitch up the middle – but White followed with a groundball to Barnes, who flipped to Lilley for the third out. Moments later, the centerfielder Moore took his turn as defensive hero by running deep into the left-center gap to corral an opposite-field launch off the bat of Dury (sending the game on to the 9th).
Barnes battled to a full count in the bottom of the 9th before driving a single up the middle. Freshman catcher Ryan Smith then came on as a pinch-hitter and advanced Barnes with a bunt (similar to the 9th inning of the Toledo game, when Barnes hit a leadoff double and took third on Smith’s bunt). The Irish then had two cracks at a game-winning hit, but Ryan Connolly grounded out to the second baseman (0-1 pitch) – advancing Barnes to third – and Lilley went after the next pitch, flying out to the centerfielder Moore into the left-center gap.
Langford bobbled a weak rightside grounder by Nielsen to start the 10th but popped up Moore on a bunt-attempt strikeout (0-2 pitch) to keep the runner out of scoring position. Kyle Reesing then flew out to right (1-2 pitch) and Nielsen stole second before Ingaldson bounced out to the third baseman Pollock on a 2-2 pitch.
NOTES (other historical info. on 1-0 games and 9-inning solo shutouts listed below) – Langford’s error was ND’s only E of the game … Lilley’s 15-game errorless streak is the second-longest of his career and spans 64 fielding chances (he had 3 putouts and 6 assists in Wednesday’s game) … Lilley’s older sister Tricia was a star shortstop and Academic All-American at Purdue from 2002-05 … ND has won four straight in the series vs. Purdue and nine of the past 10 … the teams did not play in 2001, ’02 or ’04, due to various weather conflicts (one of those games was scheduled to be played at Purdue, but the Boilermakers had their Big Ten weekend series roll over to a Tuesday) … Weglarz has scored a run in seven straight games and has hits in six of the past eight, batting 10-for-28 in that span (.357) … Weglarz struck out in his first at-bat, marking his first K in 10 games … postgame quotes from Elam, Weglarz, Dressman and ND head coach Dave Schrage are archived on the und.com All-Access multimedia player (at the end of the game broadcast) … Korpi was likely to pitch on Wednesday but now will be available for full relief duty in the upcoming BIG EAST series vs. West Virginia (ND’s rotation will be, in order, Phelps, Kyle Weiland and Eric Maust, all RHPs).
RECENT 1-0 GAMES INVOLVING NOTRE DAME BASEBALL – Dating back to a 1-0 loss at Xavier on April 25, 1992 (in a 7-inining game), the Notre Dame baseball team has played in just eight 1-0 games over that 15-year stretch (a span of 916 games) … ND has won each of the past eight 1-0 games, which include only five that have been 9-inning games … current sophomore RHP Phelps (’07, vs. USF) joined former versatile pitcher Gagne (’02, vs. BYU) as the only pitchers on the below list to register a 9-inning solo shutout in the rare 1-0 wins (sophomore LHP Elam also went 9.0 innings vs. Purdue, leaving the game with a 0-0 score) … here’s the list:
9-Inning, 1-0 Games (since win over Illinois-Chicago on 4/15/91, a span of 980 games)
Notre Dame 1, Valparaiso 0 (4/22/98; Eck Stadium) – Five ND pitchers who would have noteworthy careers pitched in this game, most notably current Major League players Brad Lidge (starter, jr., RHP; 2 IP, 2 H, BB, 2 Ks, 8 BF, 32 pitches) and Heilman, who picked up the win after closing the final 3.2 innings (H, BB, 6 Ks, 12 BF, 47 pitches) … the outing extended Heilman’s personal shutout streak to 16 appearances and 26.1 innings (it later would reach 33.0 IP) while dropping his season ERA to 1.14 and giving him 53 Ks in 39.1 total IP … the 1-0 battle actually was the first game of a scheduled doubleheader, with the game extended beyond 7 innings until ending with 2-outs in the bottom of the 9th … the game-ending sequence included a one-out fielding error by SS Billy Finn (allowing Brant Ust to reach), with Ust coming around to score on a stolen base, a Jeff Perconte groundout and Alec Porzel’s single into left-center (on a 1-2 pitch) … Valpo sophomore RHP Tony Floros pitched the 8.2 innings for the tough-luck loss (UER, 8 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, 34 BF, 124 pitches) … others to pitch for the Irish included standout late 1990s starter Alex Shilliday (jr. RHP, 2 IP, H, K, 8 BF, 24 pitches), future top righthanded starter Scott Cavey (soph. RHP, IP, 3 H, HB, 5 BF, 23 pitches) and freshman LHP Mike Naumann (0.1 IP, H, 2 BF, 3 pitches), who went on to become a two-time Academic All-American … the game spanned 2:21 of game time.
#24 Notre Dame 1, #2 Miami 0 (5/12/99; Eck Stadium) – Roughly 13 months later, Porzel, Heilman and Shilliday again played key roles in a 1-0 win, this time over the vaunted Miami Hurricanes, in a classic showdown that remains on the short list of the greatest games in Eck Stadium history … ND became the first team to shut out Miami since 1995 (ending the 6th-longest scoring streak in NCAA history at 248 games) … the Irish also were one strike away from handing Miami its first no-hit loss in more than 2,000 games (2,078, dating back to 1964) – and it would have been the first no-hit loss for the Hurricanes in a 9-inning games since 1958 … Mike Rodriguez averted the no-hitter by dropping a 1-2 pitch into shallow left field but Heilman (5 IP, H, 3 BB, 7 Ks, 4 groundouts, 17 BF) then struck out fellow Team USA invitee Manny Crespo to end the game … three ND pitchers combined for 15 Ks, with Shilliday (2 IP, 2 BB, 4 Ks, runner caught stealing, 7 BF) and senior LHP McKeown (2 IP, BB, 4 Ks, pickoff throw, 6 BF) combining to face just 13 batters over the first four innings … the games only run came in the 1st inning, as Steve Stanley hit an opposite-field, leadoff single to left field and then was running on a groundout to second base by fellow freshman Paul O’Toole before scoring on Porzel’s single into center (on a 2-2 pitch) … sophomore RHP Tony Farmer took the loss (4.1 IP, 6 H, BB, HB, WP, 4 Ks, 20 BF) while freshman RHPs Troy Roberson (2.2 IP, BB, 2 Ks, balk, 9 BF) and Vince Vasquez (IP, BB, 2 Ks, 3 BF) combined for 3.0 shutout innings … Miami’s hopes for the 9th-inning rally were dampened by a sliding catch from LF Matt Nussbaum, who raced to the leftfield line to snare a 1-2 pitch off the bat of future big-leaguer Bobby Hill … the win game the Irish their 14th straight 40-win season … the game spanned 2:35 of game time.
Notre Dame 1, BYU 0 (4/1/02; Eck Stadium) – Possibly the fastest 9-inning game in ND history was over in just 1:39, as the teams combined for only nine baseunners and no errors… unlike the games vs. Valpo and Miami, this tight game featured just one pitcher for each team … ND junior RHP Gagne faced just 30 batters while registering the 3-hit shutout (7 Ks, 8 GO, 6 infield popups, 71 of 108 pitches for strikes) … the outing came just four days after Gagne was knocked around in his start at West Virginia (1.0 IP, 5 R, 6 H) … senior LHP Jeff Stone went the distance for the Cougars (8 IP, 5 H, BB, K, 28 BF, 41 of 71 pitches for strikes) … junior DH and 8-hole hitter Mike Holba was the unlikely offensive hero, in a rare start … Holba pulled a 2-0 pitch into the left-center gap for a one-out double in the 3rd inning before moving up on Joe Thaman’s grounder back to the mound and scoring on a wild pitch.
Notre Dame 1, South Florida 0 (3/23/07; Eck Stadium) – see the following link for game recap: http://und.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/032307aab.html
Notre Dame 1, Purdue 0 (4/18/07; Eck Stadium; 10 innings) – see game data earlier in this release.
7-Inning, 1-0 Games – There also have been three 7-inning games involving ND (since 1992) that have produced 1-0 finals … junior RHP Darin Schmalz posted the complete-game win over Navy on 2/23/96, in Millington, Tenn. (0 BB, 4 Ks, one runner reached 3rd base) … Mike Amrhein hit a solo home run in the bottom of the 1st … Navy pitcher McLemore also went the distance (6 IP) … nine years later at Eck Stadium, sophomore RHP Chris Niesel’s no-hit bid ended on a 2-out bunt single by West Virginia’s Lee Fritz (5/3/03) … Niesel struck out nine, faced just 23 batters and located 67 of his 101 pitches for strikes (1 H, 1 BB) … WVU sophomore RHP Shawn Miller took the loss (6 IP, UER, 4 H, BB, HB, WP, 3 Ks, 25 BF, 56 of 88 pitches for strikes) … sophomore SS Matt Macri’s leadoff double past the third-base bag (1-2 pitch) sparked the 6th-inning run sequence, followed by Brennan Grogan’s sac. bunt, a hit batter (Matt Edwards), a popup and a fielding error by SS Grant Psomas that allowed Macri to score … Eck Stadium saw a similar game between ND and Rutgers on 5/15/04, with Grant Johnson collecting the win (7 IP, 4 H, BB, 3 Ks, 26 BF, 60 of 85 pitches for strikes) and fellow junior RHP Jack Egbert taking the loss (6 IP, R, 6 H, 2 BB, HB, WP, 2 Ks, 25 BF, 55 of 87 pitches for strikes) … Macri had the RBI in this 1-0 game, pulling a 1-0 pitch down the leftfield line to score Cody Rizzo (who was hit by a pitch before moving up on Greg Lopez’s sac. bunt).
ND’s RECENT NINE-INNING SOLO SHUTOUTS (1995-2007) – LHP Tom Thornton (’05 and ’06) recently joined Dan Stavisky (’96), Tamayo (1 in ’00, 2 in ’01) and Heilman (’01) as the four ND pitchers who have posted multiple nine-inning solo shutouts since 1995 … the 16 nine-inning solo shutouts in that 13-year span also include the strong efforts of Darin Schmalz (’95), Gregg Henebry (’95), Christian Parker (’96), and J.P. Gagne (’02), plus current junior LHP Korpi (’06) and current sophomore RHP Phelps (’07), and also sophomore LHP Elam (who left a 0-0 game with Purdue after logging 9.0 innings) … Thornton, Henebry, Korpi and Elam are the only LHPs on the list … five on the below list have not walked a batter in their solo shutouts: Parker, Stavisky (2), Gagne and Thornton (vs. SIU) … four on the list allowed just three combined hits/walks in their solo shutouts: Parker, Stavisky (vs. Pitt), Tamayo (vs. SJU) and Gagne … 10 of the recent 9-inning solo shutouts have featured 2-3 hits allowed: 1 by Elam, 2 by Heilman (vs. Pitt) and Tamayo (vs. St. John’s), and 3 by Henebry, Parker, Stavisky (vs. Pitt), Tamayo (vs. Mississippi State and New Mexico), Gagne, Korpi and Phelps … Gagne, Phelps and Elam are the only players on the list to toss their gem in a 1-0 game while Stavisky (vs. Pittt) and Korpi did so in 2-0 games and four others were 3-0 games (Schmalz, Heilman vs. Florida Atlantic and Pitt, Tamayo vs. UNM) … the fewest batters faced in a 9-inning solo shutout (since ’95): Stavisky (28, vs. Pitt), Schmalz (30), Tamayo (30, vs. MSU and SJU) and Gagne (30) … the most Ks in a 9-inning solo shutout since `95: Parker (11), Korpi (11), Phelps (10, vs. South Florida), Stavisky (10, vs. Pitt), Heilman (9, vs. FAU), Tamayo (9, vs. SJU), Elam (9) and Heilman (8, vs. Pitt) … the lowest pitch counts (stat kept for the past 11, since 2000): 84 by Thornton (vs. Southern Illinois), 105 by Tamayo (vs. MSU), 107 by Tamayo (vs. SJU), 108 by Heilman (vs. Pitt) and Gagne … here’s the list of ND’s 9-inning solo shutouts from 1995-2007:
• 3/11/95 … ND 3, George Washington 0 (in San Antonio) – RHP Darin Schmalz (4 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, 30 BF, one runner past 2B)
• 4/22/95 … ND 6, Illinois-Chicago 0 – LHP Gregg Henebry (3 H, BB, HB, 6 Ks, 31 BF, no runners past 2B)
• 4/21/96 … ND 7, at Georgetown 0 – RHP Christian Parker (3 H, 0 BB, 11 Ks, 5.1 no-hit start, no hit to OF until 2-outs in 9th)
• 4/30/96 … ND 2, Pittsburgh 0 – RHP Dan Stavisky (3 H, 0 BB, 10 Ks, 28 BF)
• 5/17/96 … ND 4, St. John’s 0 (BET; Norwich, Conn.) – RHP Dan Stavisky (6 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks)
• 5/28/00 … ND 7, at Mississippi State 0 (NCAAs) – RHP Danny Tamayo (3 H, 1 BB, K, 10 GO, 30 BF, 105 pitches, took no-hitter into 7th)
• 3/2/01 … ND 3, Florida Atlantic 0 (in St. Petersburg) – RHP Aaron Heilman (5 H, 1 BB, 9 Ks, 11 GO, 4 IF popups/lineouts, rundown, 32 BF, 111 pitches)
• 3/12/01 … ND 3, New Mexico 0 (in Fresno, Calif.) – RHP Danny Tamayo (3 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, 8 GO, 34 BF, 122 pitches)
• 3/23/01 … ND 3, at Pittsburgh 0 – RHP Aaron Heilman (2 H, 4 BB, 2 HB, 8 Ks, 16 GO, 32 BF, 108 pitches, bloop 1B and 1B thru the infield)
• 4/28/01 … ND 5, at St. John’s 0 – RHP Danny Tamayo (2 H, 1 BB, 9 Ks, 14 GO, 30 BF, 75 of 107 pitches for strikes, bunt single)
• 4/1/02 … ND 1. BYU 0 – RHP J.P. Gagne (3 H, 0 BB, HB, 7 Ks, 8 GO, 6 IF popups, 30 BF, 71 of 108 pitches for strikes)
• 3/27/04 … ND 4, at West Virginia 0 – LHP Tom Thornton (6 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, 9 GO, 3 IF popups, 34 BF, 75 of 111 pitches for strikes, multiple baserunners only in the 5th)
• 3/18/06 … ND 4, Southern Illinois 0 (in San Antonio) – LHP Tom Thornton (5 H, 0 BB, 2 Ks, 12 GO, 3 IF popups/foulouts, 31 BF, 64 of 84 pitches for strikes, 3 runners in scoring position/1 reached 3B)
• 3/29/06 … ND 2, Western Michigan 0 – LHP Wade Korpi (3 H, 2 BB, 11 Ks, 6 GO, 2 IF popups, 2 pickoffs, 31 BF, 77 of 114 pitches for strikes)
• 3/23/07 … ND 1, South Florida 0 – RHP David Phelps (3 H, 1 BB, 1 HB, 10 Ks, 5 GO, 32 BF, 78 of 115 pitches for strikes)
• 4/18/07 … ND 1, Purdue 0 – LHP Sam Elam (1 H, 6 BB, 9 Ks, 12 GO, 33 BF, 73 of 122 pitches for strikes)
Purdue (16-14) 0-0-0 0-0-0 0-0-0 0 – 0 1 0
Notre Dame (19-17) 0-0-0 0-0-0 0-0-0 1 – 1 3 1
Matt Bischoff, Matt Jansen (10; L, 0-1) and Eric Nielsen.
Sam Elam, Tony Langford (10; W, 2-0) and Matt Weglarz.
Double: Weglarz (ND)