Irish Stopped by Yellow Jackets

Box Score (PDF)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame baseball team erased an early deficit but were stopped late in a 10-2 final against Georgia Tech on Sunday afternoon.

The Yellow Jackets plated a pair of runs in the first inning, but Rory Fox and the Irish defense shut down the Georgia Tech offense for much of the contest. Fox registered three strikeouts in the second, two in the third, and one in the fifth while Notre Dame did not allow a runner into scoring position over that same span of play.

The offense, meanwhile, got the Irish right back into the mix. Brady Gumpf led off the third inning with a walk, and a sacrifice bunt by Noah Coy turned into an error and put a pair of runners on base for Notre Dame. Parker Brzustewicz executed a sacrifice bunt of his own to advance the pair into scoring position. Bino Watters then drove in Gumpf with a hard grounder up the first-base line to make it a 2-1 game.

Davis Johnson then led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a home run to center field to tie the game up at 2-2. Nick DeMarco laced a two-out double down the left field line to keep the inning alive, but a hard-hit ball by Gumpf was caught by a Yellow Jacket outfielder to end the inning.

Chase Van Ameyde came on in relief in the top of the sixth and struck out the first two batters he faced before retiring the side in order with a routine ground ball to Estevan Moreno.

Georgia Tech plated four runs in the seventh to shift the momentum. The Irish put runners on base in the seventh, eighth, and ninth but were unable to break through into the scoring column. The Yellow Jackets added a run in the eighth and three in the ninth for the 10-2 margin.

Rory Fox had six strikeouts over 5.0 innings of work for the Irish in a no-decision effort on the mound. Chase Van Ameyde struck out three in 1.2 innings but suffered the loss in relief. Tobey McDonough tallied three strikeouts in 1.1 innings with no earned runs allowed. Oisin Lee and DJ Helwig closed out the final inning on the mound for the Irish as Helwig struck out a pair.

Parker Brzustewicz went 2-for-4 for the Irish. Davis Johnson was 1-for-3 with a home run, and Brady Gumpf went 1-for-3 with a walk and a run. Jared Zimbardo and Nick DeMarco each laced a double, and Bino Watters registered an RBI.

The Irish (12-9, 1-8 ACC) are set to host Michigan State on Wednesday night at Frank Eck Stadium. The game begins at 6:00 p.m. and will be available on ACC Network.

Admission is free for all home regular season Notre Dame baseball contests.