NASHVILLE, TN – With a big seventh inning, the Irish take home their first win and advance to 1-1 on the season as they took down Lipscomb 8-4 on Saturday afternoon. Notre Dame’s looking to carry their momentum into the final game of the series tomorrow, as the Irish play game three at Dugan Field at 2:00 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m. CT).
The first three innings were scoreless on both sides, with Radek Birkholz closing out the bottom of the second with three straight strikeouts. Birkholz finished the day with five strikeouts in three innings.
The offense started to roll in the fourth as a Nick Juaire single down the left field line allowed Brooks Coetzee to advance to third. A wild pitch gave Coetzee the scoring opportunity and he capitalized on it, putting Notre Dame on the board and giving the Irish the 1-0 lead.
At the bottom of the fourth, the Bisons responded with a big RBI double that scored three runners. The Irish trailed 3-1 with no outs. Aidan Tyrell took the mound to close out the bottom of the fourth, pitching through four innings and not allowing a hit.
Heading into the top of the seventh the Irish trailed 4-1, but it didn’t take long for Notre Dame to score as they finished the inning with four hits and were hit by five pitches. A double from Danny Neri put runners on third and second for the Irish and after getting hit by a pitch, TJ Williams advanced to first. With bases loaded, Prajzner was able to score off a passed ball and the Irish brought it within two. Followed by an RBI double from Jack Zyska, Williams and Neri scored and it was tied up at 4-4 with no outs.
After a single from Carter Putz, a sacrifice bunt from Jack Penney brought home Zyska and the Irish took their second lead of the game at 5-4. Putz would score off of a wild pitch and after getting hit by the pitch two more times with bases loaded, the Irish tallied three more runs to the board and extended the lead to 8-4.
Matt Bedford took the mound at the bottom of the eighth and pitched two innings, allowing only one hit and no runs. The seven-run seventh inning gave the Irish the 8-4 win in game two and gave John P. and Catherine Murphy head coach Shawn Stiffler his first win at Notre Dame.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame is back in action tomorrow for game three at Dugan Field at 2:00 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m. CT). The series is tied at 1-1 after today’s win.