Feb. 25, 2007
ND-CC BOXSCORE
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Myrtle Beach, S.C. – Senior righthander John Mariotti turned in the complete-game victory as the host team Coastal Carolina defeated Notre Dame, 4-0, in Sunday’s final-round action at the Baseball at the Beach tournament. Notre Dame (2-4) continues its challenging early-season schedule next weekend at the Stetson Invitational, facing the host Hatters, Nebraska and Iowa.
Sophomore righthander Brett Graffy (0-1) suffered the loss in his first career start with the Irish, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks in 3.0 innings (with three strikeouts). Senior lefthander Mike Dury then allowed just an unearned run over the next thee innings (2 H, BB, 2 Ks), lowering his career ERA to 1.73 (best in record ND history, among pitchers with 60-plus career innings).
Coastal Carolina (9-1) – which suffered its only loss of the season yesterday, while facing one of the nation’s top-rated pitchers from North Carolina State – opened the scoring with three of runs in the bottom of the 3rd, with the sequence included bad-luck leadoff single that glanced off Graffy and ended up in no-man’s land on the right side of the infield. A balk and sac. bunt moved the lead runner to third, followed by a hit batter and three straight RBI singles (by Derek Anderson, Chris Raber and Tommy Baldridge.
Senior centerfielder Danny Dressman had a trademark opposite-field single to left-center in the top of the 4th but Mariotti quickly rolled up a 4-6-3 double-play ball. The switch-hitting Dury – who hit 6-for-12 in the tournament – then pulled a 2-2 pitch down the rightfield line for a double but another groundball kept the Irish off the scoreboard.
The Irish had another chance in the 6th – after Brett Lilley’s 1-out, opposite-field single down the leftfield line and Dressman’s double to left-center. But Mariotti struck out the next two batters and Coastal added a run in the bottom of the inning for the final 4-0 margin.
The Irish ended up stranding five baseunners and now have left 45 runners on base for the season (with 24 runs scored). The Notre Dame offense owns a .338 season on-base percentage but the Irish are batting just .247 with runners on base and .240 with them in scoring position.
Dury’s team-best .364 batting average (8-for-22) includes four singles and four extra-base hits (HR, 3B, 2 2B), yielding a .682 slugging percentage.
Notre Dame (2-4) 000 000 00 – 0 5 1
Coastal Carolina (9-1) 003 001 0X – 4 8 0
Brett Graffy (L, 0-1), Mike Dury (4), Dan Kapala (7), Jess Stewart (8) and Matt Weglarz.
John Mariotti (W, 1-0) and Matt Rademacher.
Doubles: Danny Dressman (ND), Mike Dury (ND), Chris Raber (CC)