April 21, 2012
BETHESDA, Md. – Freshman RHP Pat Connaughton (Arlington, Mass./St. John’s Prep) tossed 6.0 scoreless innings and Notre Dame pounded out 16 hits en route to a 14-4 rout of Georgetown Saturday at Shirley Povich Field. The Irish completed a three-game sweep of the Hoyas in just over 22 hours and improved to 22-16 overall and 9-6 in the BIG EAST. Georgetown dropped to 18-21 and 5-10.
Connaughton (2-2), who is still building up his stamina after joining the baseball squad following the basketball season, limited the Hoyas to just four hits over the longest outing of his career. He struck out three and walked four, but also induced 10 ground ball outs, including a pair of double plays.
Sophomore 3B Eric Jagielo (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North H.S.) and senior RF Alex Robinson (Dallas, Texas/First Baptist Academy) each collected three hits. Jagielo went 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored. Robinson went 3-for-3 with a three-runtriple and three runs scored.
Junior 2B Frank DeSico (Cleveland, Ohio/St. Ignatius H.S.), freshman SS Jason McMurray (West Des Moines, Iowa/Dowling Catholic H.S.), freshman LF Mac Hudgins (Richmond, Va./Douglass Freeman H.S.) and junior CF Charlie Markson (Whitefish Bay, Wisc./Whitefish Bay H.S.) also chipped in with two hits apiece. DeSico went2-for-5 with a double, run scored and RBI. McMurray went 2-for-4 with his first career home run. Hudgins went 2-for-4 with a run scored, RBI single and two-run double. Markson went 2-for-3 with a run scored and two RBI.
Sophomore 1B Trey Mancini (Winter Haven, Fla./Winter Haven H.S.) added his third home run of the weekend and seventh of the year.
Senior LHP Steve Sabatino (Lockport, Ill./Lockport Township H.S.) tossed 2.0 scoreless innings. The southpaw retired all six Georgetown batters he faced and collected four strikeouts.
The 16 hits for the Irish gave them 45 in the series against the Hoyas.
Notre Dame jumped out to an early lead for the third straight game. The Irish used four hits and one criticalGeorgetown error to grab a 3-0 lead in the top of the second inning. Markson collected an RBI sacrifice fly, while Hudgins and DeSico registered RBI singles.
Notre Dame doubled its lead with three more runs in the top of the third. With Jagielo at second (after leadoff single) and Robinson at first (two-out walk), Georgetown catcher Kevin Johnson tried pick off Robinson, but his throw was wild and caromed off the glove of Danny Poplawski who was late to cover the bag. Jagielo raced all the way from second to score and Robinson scampered to third.
After Markson drew a walk, Hudgins ripped a two-run double off the right field wall to give the Irish a 6-0 lead. Hudgins was gunned down trying to advance to third on the throw home.
Notre Dame used the long ball to push its lead to 9-0. McMurray hammered his first career home run – a solo shot deep over the left field wall – and Mancini stroked a towering 2-run bomb over the scoreboard in left field.
The nine-run cushion was morethan enough for Connaughton, who worked into the sixth inning for the firsttime in his career. He did so with a pretty economical 83 pitches.
Jack Vander Linden took the loss and dropped to 4-2 on the year. He was knocked around for six runs, four earned, on six hits in 3.0 innings.
Notre Dame returns to the diamond at 5:35 p.m. Wednesday at Frank Eck Stadium against Central Michigan. In-game updates will be available on Twitter at @NDBaseball and Facebook at NDBaseball, and fans can listen to all the action locally on 103.1 FM and on the Internet at UND.com.