HOUSTON, Texas — Notre Dame (1-0) opened the 2024 season with a 3-1 win at Rice Friday, with RHP Radek Birkholz earning the win. The Irish were led at the plate by OF Tito Flores and his two hits, while OF TJ Williams added Notre Dame’s third hit of the night.
RHP Caden Spivey started on the mound for the Irish, pitching three innings and allowing the sole run of the game through 13 batters. Birkholz entered the game to begin the fourth, facing 10 batters and striking out three to earn the win. Graduate transfers and RHPs Bennett Flynn and Nate Hardman followed Birkholz to close out the win, with Hardman earning the save.
C Tony Lindwedel made his first-career start behind the plate for Notre Dame and scored Notre Dame’s first run, while graduate transfers Flynn, Hardman, Flores, INF Simon Baumgardt, INF Josh Hahn and OF David Glancy made their first appearances in an Irish uniform.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Rice got on the board first with an RBI single in the first inning. In the second, the Irish benefited from Rice missteps, as a series of two walks and two HBP scored Lindwedel to even the score at 1-1. Spivey and the Irish defense sat the next three Rice batters down to end the second.
Both teams went scoreless in the third, and Birkholz entered for Spivey in the fourth, as Rice went three up, three down. In the top of the fifth, Glancy reached on an error, advancing to second on a wild pitch. INF Jack Penney walked, and Flores singled to load the bases. Hahn drew a HBP to score Glancy, and Baumgardt grounded into a DP to score Penney, putting the Irish up 3-1 in the fifth. Birkholz and the Irish again sat down all three batters in the bottom half of the inning.
In the sixth, Birkholz again held Rice scoreless, and in the seventh, Flynn entered for the Irish and held Rice without a run in the next two innings. Both sides went three up, three down in the eighth, and with three Irish batters retired in the ninth, Notre Dame called Hardman to the mound. The Irish forced Rice into three groundouts to seal the win and earn Hardman the save.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame and Rice square off again Saturday, Feb. 17. First pitch will be at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN+.