Box Score (PDF)
BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Notre Dame baseball team fell in a 7-1 final at Florida Atlantic University on Friday night.
Both sides stranded a two-out runner in the first, but the Irish broke through in the top of the second with a two-out rally. Noah Coy reached on a fielder’s choice before Dylan Passo notched the first hit of his career with a single through the right side. Jamie Zee then added his first career hit for the Irish with a single through the left side to drive in Coy from second base.
The Owls countered with a three-run burst in the bottom half of the second to gain a 3-1 lead through two complete.
In the top of the fourth, Jayce Lee used a seeing-eye single to shallow right-center field to reach base with one out. Noah Coy then drew a four-pitch walk to put a pair on base, but the Irish were unable to get the timely hit to cut into the deficit in the fourth frame. Jack Radel, meanwhile, posted back-to-back strikeouts to end the bottom half of the inning.
Drew Berkland led off the top of the fifth by drawing a walk. Two batters later, Mark Quatrani punched a single through the right side on the first pitch of his at-bat to put runners on the corners with an out. Two consecutive outs, however, saw the pair stay at the corners to end the top half of the fifth.
Noah Rooney made his Irish debut as the lefty came on in relief in the bottom of the fifth and quickly struck out the first batter he faced. Rooney dialed up another strikeout two batters later, and Dylan Passo hung on to make the catch at the side netting along the right-field line to close out the inning.
Mason Barth bounced a single up the middle in his first collegiate at-bat to put a runner on board with two outs gone in the top of the sixth, but the Irish were unable to capitalize. Noah Coy made a pair of strong plays up the middle at shortstop to keep the Owls at bay in the bottom half of the inning.
The Irish defense came up with a big play to end the seventh inning. With a runner on second and two outs gone, the Owls hit a single to right field and waved the runner around from second to try to score. Jayce Lee came up firing with a perfect one-hop bullet and cut down the runner at the plate as Davis Johnson held on while applying the tag to end the inning.
Noah Coy drew a four-pitch walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch with two outs gone in the top of the eighth, but the rally fell short late in the game for the Irish. The Owls pushed four runs across in the bottom of the eighth to gain a 7-1 lead. The Irish were unable to put together a late-game comeback in what ended in a 7-1 final score.
Noah Coy drew two walks and scored a run for the Irish. Jamie Zee had a hit and drove in Coy. Dylan Passo, Mason Barth and Mark Quatrani each added a hit in the game.
Jack Radel shouldered the decision on the mound after going 4.0 with five strikeouts and scattering four hits. Noah Rooney went 3.2 on the bump with a pair of strikeouts, and Garrett Snyder picked up his first career strikeout in one-third of an inning of work.
The Irish (0-1) are set to face the Owls in game two of a three-game series on Saturday starting at 4:00 p.m. ET.