SAN ANTONIO, Texas — After Notre Dame’s first game of the Alamo Irish Classic got canceled, the bats came out swinging Friday night to lead the Irish to a 12-1 win over UIW at Nelson Wolff Stadium.
Notre Dame (3-1) jumped on UIW (3-1) early, scoring in six of the first seven innings of the game. The offense was more than enough for ACC Pitcher of the Week Tommy Sheehan. He tossed six innings, allowed just one run and struck out five without issuing a walk to pick up his second win of the season.
At the plate, eight batters recorded at least one hit and four hat multi-hit efforts against UIW. Spencer Myers tied a career high with three hits and Eric Gilgenbach notched his second home run of the season, a three run shot in the seventh to put the game out of reach.
How It Happened
The Irish got on the board early in the bottom of the first. Myers reached on an infield single to second and moved over to third after a stolen base and a deep flyout. Zack Prajzner worked a full-count, two-out walk to bring up Jared Miller. Miller split the gap in left center and got passed the diving center fielder. Miller reached second on the double and both runs scored.
Notre Dame added another run in the bottom of the second thanks to a lengthy at bat by Ryan Cole. On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, he singled up the middle and then stole second to get into scoring position. Myers came to the plate with two outs and singled up the middle to score Cole and increase the Irish lead to 3-0.
After adding a run in the fourth off a throwing error, Brooks Coetzee continued the hot day at the plate for the Irish with a two-RBI double in the fifth. It went down the line in left and bounced off the wall in the corner to score Miller and Niko Kavadas.
The Irish gave up their first run of the game in the sixth but Sheehan did not allow anymore damage as he got a ground out to end the inning with UIW runners on second and third.
In the bottom half of the inning, Notre Dame got the run back after Carter Putz singled through the left side to score Cole from second and advance Myers to third. Myers came home to score on Kavadas’ sac fly later in the inning. After six innings, the Irish held an 8-1 lead.
In the bottom of the seventh, two pinch hitters broke the game open for Notre Dame. John Arndorfer smacked a double off the wall in right to score Coetzee. Later in the inning, Gilgenbach stepped to the plate and sent a shot over the wall in left for a three-run homer to put no doubt on the victory for the Irish.
After Sheehan left in the sixth, freshman Dominic Cancellieri came on and closed out the final three innings. He allowed just two hits to pick up his first collegiate save.
Game Notes
- Spencer Myers tied career high in hits after going 3-for-4 from the plate with two runs, two stolen bases and one RBI
- Myers tallied his first multi-steal game of the season after leading the Irish with 22 steals in 2019.
- Tommy Sheehan tossed his second quality start to begin the season and picked up the win over UIW. He has allowed just one run in 13 innings this season.
- Jared Miller recorded his team leading fourth double of the season in the first inning.
- The Irish recorded double-digit hits for the third straight game while scoring double-digit runs for the first time this season.
- Eric Gilgenbach tallied his second home run of the season in the seventh inning when he hit a three-run pinch hit homer to left.
- Ryan Cole tied a career high with two hits and two runs against the Cardinals.
- Freshman Dominic Cancellieri tossed three innings of relief to pick up his first collegiate save.
UP NEXT
The Irish will be back at Nelson Wolff Stadium on Saturday for their final two games of the Alamo Irish Classic. The Irish will start off against Toledo at 4 p.m. ET and then finish the day against UTSA at 7 p.m. ET.
For a behind-the-scenes look at the Irish baseball program, follow @NDBaseball on Twitter and @NotreDameBaseball on Instagram.
—ND—