May 19, 2007
For the second straight day at Eck Stadium, the Notre Dame and Connecticut baseball teams thrilled the fans to an exciting finish – but this time it was the Huskies who had the final rally, scoring twice in the top of the 9th to take Saturday’s 7-6 victory in the regular-season finale. Both teams will live to play another day, as Notre Dame (28-26; 11-15 BIG EAST) is the 7th seed for the upcoming BIG EAST Championship and will face Rutgers in the second of four opening-round games (1:00 p.m.), to be played on Tuesday, May 22, at Keyspan Ballpark in Brooklyn, N.Y. Notre Dame will be seeking to extend its unprecedented run of BIG EAST tournament titles to six while looking for its ninth straight NCAA tournament bid.
Connecticut (30-25, 10-14) snatched the eighth and final playoff spot, thanks to its win coupled with losses by both Cincinnati and West Virginia. The Huskies will play in the other four-team, double-elimination bracket and will open versus top-seeded St. John’s in the final game on the 22nd (8:00 p.m.). The other teams in Notre Dame’s bracket include third-seeded Louisville and sixth seed Villanova, while UConn will be in a bracket that also includes Pittsburgh and South Florida.
Junior lefthander Wade Korpi – who allowed just one run in 7.0 strong inning versus UConn last season – was in line for the win on Saturday, after allowing just one run on five hits and two walks in a 6.0-inning outing that included six strikeouts. But the Huskies rallied for six runs against the Irish bullpen, becoming just the sixth visiting team ever to win a BIG EAST series at Eck Stadium (spanning 12 seasons).
Rookie third baseman A.J. Pollock (3-for-5, RBI, R) posted his second straight three-hit game, with a pair of doubles and a single. Pollock now sits firmly atop the team batting charts with a .382 season average (Brett Lilley is next, at .361) and likely will become just the fourth freshman ever to lead Notre Dame is batting. His current average would be the third-best ever by a Notre Dame freshman and best since Scott Sollmann hit .402 in 1994.
Notre Dame’s most productive inning all season has been the 3rd and that continued to be the case on Saturday, as the Irish used four hits, a hit batter, a double steal and squeeze bunt to push across four runs. Matt Weglarz had the big hit in the inning, after pulling a two-run single through the left side of the infield.
Pollock’s RBI double gave the Irish a 5-0 lead in the next inning, with the visitors finally getting on the board in the 6th. Josh Farkes cut the lead to 5-3 in the 7th, after launching a two-run blast into the batters eye above the fence in right-center field. The Irish answered with an insurance run, when Mike Dury singled home fellow senior captain Danny Dressman – but the Huskies came right back to score twice more in the 8th, with both runs scoring on a single by Gavin Stevens.
The Irish were one out away from the win before the Huskies rallied into the lead, with that two-out sequence including two hits and two walks. Matt Untiet brought home the tying and go-ahead runs with a single up the middle.
Lefthanded closer Matt Karl (1-2) tossed the final 3.0 innings to pick up his first win of the season, along with 10 saves. Karl allowed one run on three hits and a walk while striking out three Irish batters – including two in the 9th (the final K came with the tying and winning runs on base). Freshman lefthander Greg Nappo, a former summer-league teammate of Pollock’s, did not factor into the decision, after allowing five run on five hits and two walks, with six strikeouts.
Pollock now is batting a robust .509 versus lefthanded pitching this season (27-for-53) and owns a team-best 26 multiple-hit games, including nine with three or more hits.
Prior to Saturday’s game, the team taking the lead into the 9th was 47-1 in Notre Dame’s games this season (the Irish now are 23-1 when taking a lead into the 9th). The Irish dropped to 23-8 when scoring first this season.
Lilley now has started all 174 games of his career and has reached base in 18 straight games (also on-base in 51 of 54 games overall this season).
Connecticut 0-0-0 0-0-1 2-2-2 – 7 11 1
Notre Dame 0-0-4 1-0-0 1-0-0 – 6 8 0
Greg Nappo, Matt Karl (7; W, 1-2) and Larry Day.
Wade Korpi, Brett Graffy (7), Jess Stewart (7), Sam Elam (8), Dan Kapala (9; L, 0-6) and Ryan Smith.
Home Run: Josh Farkes, UConn (1 on in 7th; 5th of season).
Doubles: A.J. Pollock 2 (ND), Gavin Stevens (UConn).