May 5, 2007
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NOTRE DAME, Ind. – BIG EAST rookie-of-the-year frontrunner A.J. Pollock continued his torrid hitting versus lefthanded pitching while junior righthander Joey Williamson closed the game strong with 4.1 shutout innings of relief, as the Notre Dame baseball team maintained its strong play in the second half of the season with Saturday’s 6-4 win over Seton Hall. The series will conclude on Sunday at Eck Stadium with a noon game, featuring sophomore lefthander Sam Elam’s first BIG EAST start of the season while SHU is likely to start sophomore RHP Keith Cantwell.
Notre Dame (27-20, 10-9 BIG EAST) remained alone in 5th-place and moved closer to clinching a spot in the eight-team BIG EAST Tournament. Based on Villanova’s sweep of West Virginia on Saturday, it now appears that the Irish can clinch a berth in the BIG EAST postseason by winning four of their final seven league games (assuming the 8th to 12th-place teams pick up their maximum wins). It’s likely that even three more league wins – and the resulting 13-13 record – would be enough to send the Irish back to the BIG EAST Tournament, as three teams currently outside the top-8 (WVU, SHU and UConn) can finish no higher than .500 while last-place Georgetown’s game-1 loss to Pittsburgh ensures that the Hoyas will finish with a losing record. Cincinnati currently occupies 8th-place at 8-11, indicating that a final record of even 12-14 (two more wins) might even be enough to clinch an ND playoff spot.
Since suffering a pair of tough 4-3 losses at Cincinnati in early April, the Irish have gone 14-6 and now are assured of winning a BIG EAST series for the fourth straight weekend. Notre Dame is 9-3 in its past 12 conference games and will enter next week alone in 5th-place, regardless of the outcome in Sunday’s games.
Pollock (3-for-4, 2 R) extended his hitting streak to seven games while moving back atop the Notre Dame batting charts, with a .380 season average. The freshman third baseman collected all of hit hits versus junior lefthander Dan Merklinger and now is batting at a robust .545 clip vs. LHPs this season (24-for-44, with 9 walks). Pollock’s .380 batting average includes a team-best 23 multiple-hit games and easily is the top batting mark among BIG EAST freshmen. He is on pace for the best season batting average by a Notre Dame freshman in 13 years, dating back to Scott Solllmann’s .402 in 1994 (another centerfielder, Eric Danapilis, is the only other ND freshman ever to hit over .380, at .429 in 1990).
Senior righthander Dan Kapala allowed only three hits by the Pirates but one of them was a three-run blast by 3-hole hitter Greg Miller, giving the visitors an early 3-0 lead. The Irish answered with five runs of their own in the bottom of the 3rd and Kapala later was two outs away from qualifying for his first win of the season, instead earning a no-decision with four runs allowed, thee walks and five strikeouts.
Williamson (4-2) – who quickly stranded his two inherited baserunners in the 5th – faced just 15 batters (two over the minimum) in the final 4.1 innings, allowing two hits but striking out six as he located 77% of his pitches for strikes (39 of 51). The junior righthander now has left seven straight inherited baserunners on base, spearheading a strong improvement in that area by the entire Irish bullpen. During the past 17 games, the Notre Dame relievers have allowed just 1-of-17 inherited baserunners to score – after allowing nearly 50% of inherited runners to score (24 of 49) in the first 30 games.
Merklinger – considered one of college baseball’s top lefthanded pitching prospects for the 2007 Major League draft – suffered the hard-luck loss, as only two of the six runs charged against him were earned. Merklinger (4-6) was tagged for 11 hits (none extra-bases) but did not walk a batter and struck out five, with 73 of his 118 pitches finding the strike zone. Another top prospect, freshman RHP Sean Black, closed the game for the Pirates and retired all five batter he faced (2 Ks).
Kapala plunked Dan Lopez with a 2-0 pitch and one out in the 3rd before losing Casey Hines on a five-pitch Walk. Miller then connected on the next pitch, yanking the ball down the leftfield line and over the fence for his fifth home run of the season.
Notre Dame answered back with its big inning, cashing in five hits (four of them to the opposite field) and three costly errors that made four of the runs unearned. Junior shortstop Brett Lilley started the sequence by going the other way on a 1-2 pitch, sending it through the left side for the one-out single. Pollock followed with his own opposite-field hit, driving a 1-1 pitch into the right-center gap and alertly scooting to second when the rightfielder Miller bobbled the ball. Junior leftfielder Ross Brezovsky’s rightside groundout brought home the first run but Seton Hall looked to be out of the inning when Matt Weglarz sent a slow chopper to the leftside, but the shortstop Mike Young bounced his throw as Pollock scored to make the game 3-2.
The Pirates again appeared to be out of the inning when Jeremy Barnes lifted a routine fly ball into left field, but Michael Rogers dropped the ball – with Weglarz motoring all the way from first base to score the tying run. Senior centerfielder Danny Dressman then produced the go-ahead single with one of his classic opposite-field hits into the left-center gap (on a 2-0 pitch).
Dressman then swiped a base, Mike Dury’s chopper fell beyond the pitcher’s mound and freshman DH Ryan Smith capped the big inning with yet another opposite-field single, pushing a 1-1 pitch through the right side for the 5-3 cushion.
Notre Dame’s most dominant offensive inning this season easily is the 3rd, which typically corresponds with the second time through the top of the lineup. The Irish now are batting .371 in the 3rd inning, with 55 total runs in the frame (spanning 47 games played).
Producing timely “big innings” (5-plus runs) have been a key to Notre Dame’s surge over the past month, with the Irish now having totaled nearly as many big innings this season (14; six in the past 10 games) as in 2006 (15). The Notre Dame offense also continued to show disciplined run-producing, as only one of the team’s four RBI on Saturday came via a hit (the others were an RBI groundout and two sacrifice flies).
The Irish added a run in the 4th, after Pollock ripped a 1-1 single up the middle and showed off his speed to take second on a blown pickoff play. Brezovsky followed with a one-out single into right (0-2) pitch and Weglarz added the sacrifice fly (to right), coming through on a 1-2 pitch.
The visitors nearly tied the game in the next inning, with Rogers walking on four pitches to lead off the frame before Miller (up the middle) and John Walsh (to left) hit two-out singles, bringing one run home for a 6-4 game with the go-ahead tying runs aboard. Williamson came right at the next batter, inducing an easy flyout to left field by 5-hole hitter Dan McDonald to end the threat.
Williamson went on to retire eight straight before Walsh’s one-out double in the 8th (to left-center), followed by a pair of groundouts that maintained the two-run cushion. Williamson then opened the 9th with a pair of strikeouts – but Matt Smedberg’s single into left again brought the tying run to the plate. After a mound visit from head coach Dave Schrage, Williamson got back to work and struck out pinch-hitter Chris Affinito on three pitches to end the game.
Seton Hall (19-22, 5-12 BIG EAST) – which now has played in 22 games this season decided by 1-2 runs – is among four BIG EAST teams tightly bunched in 9th-12th place, with the others includes idle Connecticut (6-12), WVU (6-13) and Georgetown (5-14, pending its second game on Saturday vs. Pittsburgh). St. John’s (15-5) split two games with Louisville (14-6) on Saturday and once again is tied with Rutgers (15-5)atop the standings, following RU’s Saturday sweep of Cincinnati. Pittsburgh (12-6) could move closer to Louisville by taking game-2 from Georgetown later today.
Notre Dame now owns a 25-9 series edge versus Seton Hall and is assured of winning a season series from SHU for the ninth time in 12 tries (the Pirates have two series wins vs. ND, plus a split). The Irish are 16-1 in Eck Stadium games versus the Pirates, including 10 straight home wins vs. SHU dating back to 1999.
Saturday’s game saw the Irish again total a relatively low “freebie” total of six (three walks, two hit batters and a stolen base allowed, plus no errors, passed balls, balks or wild pitches) while SHU’s seven freebies (3 Es, 3 SBA, HB) proved costly in the two-run loss. On the flip side, the hit batter and walk that preceded Miller’s home run changed that play from a solo blast to a three-run shot and made for a tighter finish.
Seton Hall (19-22, 5-12 BIG EAST) 0-0-3 0-1-0 0-0-0 – 4 5 3
Notre Dame (27-20, 10-9 BIG EAST) 0-0-5 1-0-0 0-0-X – 6 11 0
Dan Merklinger (L, 4-6), Sean Black (7) and Bobby Dombrowski.
Dan Kapala, Joey Williamson (5; W, 4-2) and Matt Weglarz.
Home Run: Greg Miller, SHU (2 on in 3rd; 5th of season).
Double: John Walsh (SHU).