Irish Travel to Belmont for Weekend Series

Notre Dame at Belmont – Game Notes

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame baseball team makes the trek to the Music City this weekend to face off against Belmont University in a three-game series starting on Friday.

THE MATCHUP

• The Irish enter the weekend 5-1 overall with a 3-1 mark in true road games this season. The squad is coming off a 3-0 weekend with victories over Iowa, UMBC, and host Stetson.
• The Bruins are 1-7 heading into the weekend. Belmont earned a rivalry win over Lipscomb with a 14-9 decision on Tuesday. This weekend will be the second consecutive home weekend series for Belmont.
• It is just the second all-time meeting between the squads. Notre Dame won the previous contest 6-4 in a neutral site contest in Macon, Georgia in the 2015 season.

LAST TIME OUT

• Jared Zimbardo drove in the tying run in the sixth, and Connor Hincks smashed a solo home run off the video board in the top of the 11th as the Irish defeated Iowa in the opening game of the weekend.
• The victory over the Hawkeyes was also the 400th win of Shawn Stiffler’s coaching career.
• The offense put up multiple runs in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth in a 12-2 rout of UMBC.
• Rory Fox was perfect in a three-inning season debut on the mound while eight different players registered a hit in an 8-2 victory over host Stetson to end the weekend.
• The Irish outscored their opponents 21-5 in the three-game stretch.

2025 CAPTAINS

The 2025 Irish baseball team will look to four captains to help guide the way this spring. John P. and Catherine Murphy Head Baseball Coach Shawn Stiffler announced graduate students OF Brady Gumpf and RHP Jackson Dennies, senior RHP Radek Birkholz, and junior INF Estevan Moreno as team captains for the season.

• Gumpf has played in 92 career contests for the Irish heading into the spring season. He had a single-season career-high 48 games played in 2024 and boasted a .352 on-base percentage with 31 RBI, 12 doubles, and nine home runs.
• Dennies has 41 career appearances and 76.1 innings pitched over his career heading into 2025. During his 2023 campaign, Dennies struck out 49 batters over 46.1 innings of work.
• Birkholz has made 48 appearances with 83.0 innings of work over three seasons for the Irish. He went 3-0 on the mound during the 2024 season with 20 strikeouts in 17.1 innings over nine appearances.
• Moreno had a team-best .625 slugging percentage in 2024 with 13 home runs and 17 doubles. His 42 runs scored was third on the team, and he has competed in 100 games for the Irish through two seasons of play.

TOP TALENT

The Irish have four players listed in the D1baseball.com Preseason rankings by position.

• Junior Estevan Moreno was 24th on the Top 50 shortstops list.
• Sophomore Carson Tinney was tabbed 47th on the Top 50 catchers listing.
• Graduate student Jared Zimbardo was 40th on the Top 100 outfielders report.
• Junior Rory Fox was 106th on the Top 150 starting pitchers list.