March 7, 2008
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Texas A&M Corpus Christi starting pitcher Brian Anderson tossed 7.0 scoreless innings to help the Islanders knock off Notre Dame, 5-2, in college baseball action from the Whataburger Classic Friday night. The Irish drop to 4-5 on the season, while Texas A&M Corpus Christi improved to 3-7.
Anderson, making his third start of the season, limited Notre Dame to just four hits over his career-long outing. He struck out five and walked three. Anderson evened his record at 1-1 on the year.
Irish junior starter David Phelps (Hazelwood, MO) dropped to 1-2 on the year. He battled through 6.0 innings and allowed four runs, all earned. Phelps struck out eight and walked a season-high four.
Sophomore A.J. Pollock (Hebron, CT), junior Evan Sharpley (Marshall, MI) and freshman Greg Sherry (Mendham, NJ) each had a couple hits. Sharpley and Pollock each had RBI doubles.
Notre Dame was hurt by their inability to come through with hits with runners in scoring position. Notre Dame went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 runners on the night.
The Islanders grabbed an early 2-0 lead with a pair of solo runs in each of the first and second innings off of Phelps (the first time the Phelps allowed any runs over the first three innings over his first three starts of the season).
Texas A&M Corpus Christi pushed its lead to 4-0 against Phelps in the fourth. Phelps fanned the first two batters in the fourth (his sixth and seventh straight retired), but then registered a walk and Chase Williams followed with a single. Williams moved into scoring position when Pollock attempted to get the lead runner at third base. Both would come into score on Martin Para’s two-run bloop single just over the head of Irish shortstop Brett Lilley (North Canton, OH).
Notre Dame did plate runs in the eighth and ninth innings, on the run scoring doubles from Pollock and Sharpley, but was not able to rally for the victory. The Irish did bring the tying run on deck in Sharpley in the ninth, but senior catcher Sean Gaston (Brownsburg, IN) popped up a 3-1 pitch for the final out of the game.
Notre Dame returns to action on Saturday afternoon against South Alabama (3:00 p.m. CT) at the Whataburger Classic in Corpus Christi, Texas. The game can heard live on ESPN Radio 1490 AM and UND.com.
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