SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Fresh off one of the most exciting series in recent history, the University of Notre Dame softball team is back in action tomorrow night as the Fighting Irish will host the sixth-ranked Northwestern Wildcats at 5 p.m. at Melissa Cook Stadium.
The Irish took two of three games from Georgia Tech over the week. Both wins came in walk-off fashion, out-slugging the Yellowjackets by tallies of 13-12 in nine innings and 15-13 in eight innings. Notre Dame has now won nine of their last 10 games and are 25-1 at home over the past four seasons.
Notre Dame boasts one of the top offenses in the Atlantic Coast Conference, hitting at a .332 team average led by Karina Gaskins’s .415 average. Gaskins leads the team with nine home runs and 44 RBI this season. Abby Sweet sports a .406 average with a team-best 38 runs scored, nine doubles and 14 stolen bases.
In the circle, the three-headed monster of Shannon Becker, Payton Tidd and Alexis Holloway have earned a 2.71 ERA this season. Tidd leads the team with 10 wins, while Becker sports a 1.62 ERA in 60.2 innings of work. Last week against Loyola Chicago, Holloway threw a 5.0 inning no hitter to earn the win.
Northwestern enters with a 24-5 record and have eight wins against ranked opponents. Against ACC competition, the Wildcats have earned a 1-1 record, with a win over Clemson and a loss to Virginia Tech during the first two weeks of the season. At the St Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational, Northwestern finished 3-1 with wins over Texas Tech, UCLA and Clemson, and battled Oklahoma State to a one-run game.
The Wildcat offense hits for a .274 team average, led by Nikki Cuchran. Cuchran owns a .368 average in 28 games, hitting six doubles, four home runs and is third on the team with 27 stolen bases. Rachel Lewis provides the pop in the Northwestern lineup, hitting at a .337 clip and owning a team-best 12 home runs. The Wildcat RBI leader is Jordyn Rudd, who’s driven in 30 on the season with four home runs, five doubles and a triple. Skyler Shellmyer and Lewis lead the team with 14 and 13 stolen bases, respectively. As a team, Northwestern has swiped 48 bags.
Northwestern uses a combination of four pitchers. Danielle Williams has started 14 games, appearing in 25 of a possible 29 games on the season. She’s worked 120.0 innings, striking out 184 hitters to earn a 1.28 ERA. Lauren Boyd has started all nine of her appearances, working 39.1 innings with 45 strikeouts and a 1.96 ERA. Lauren Dvorak is another pitcher to watch, starting five games, appearing in 11 and earning a 3.82 ERA.
Northwestern Navigations
The Irish and Wildcats have met up 24 times in program history, with Northwestern holding a 14-10 advantage. The Wildcats have won the last two, snapping a streak of three-consecutive Irish wins. The last time at Melissa Cook Stadium, the Irish lost 3-1, April 9th, 2019. Abby Sweet, Quinn Biggio, Sarah Genz, Shelby Grimm, Payton Tidd and Alexis Holloway appeared in the game. Genz recorded one of three Irish hits as Tidd and Holloway combined for four innings in the circle.
Melissa Home Cooked
In the last four seasons, Notre Dame has gone a combined 33-4 at Melissa Cook Stadium, including a perfect 15-0 at home last season. In the Gumpf-era, the Irish are 292-64 when defending home turf and had won 23-straight home games until falling on the series opener with Georgia Tech.
Thou Shalt Not Steal
The catching combination of Shelby Grimm and Carlli Kloss have limited the opponents running game better than any tandem in the ACC. Kloss has thrown out four of nine attempted base stealers, and Grimm has tossed out eight of 17 attempts. Combined, the Irish have thrown out 12 of 26 attempted base stealers and the .538 stolen base allowed percentage is the lowest in the conference. Grimm also picked off a runner this season.
Getting Out of the Blocks
Notre Dame has scored 46 runs in the first inning of games this season, and 127 runs in the first three innings this season. When scoring in the first inning, the Irish are 15-2 this season and when scoring the first run of the game Notre Dame is 21-2 on the season. The Irish have hit seven of their 35 home runs in the first inning this season. The only other inning with as many home runs is the fourth inning.
National and ACC Player of the Week
Karina Gaskins had one of the most productive weeks in all of NCAA softball two weeks ago, leading the Irish to a 5-0 record and a three-game ACC sweep at Pitt. She finished the week 12-for-16 with a double, two home runs, eight runs scored and 11 RBI. She had at least one hit and one RBI in all five games, four of which were multi-hit and multi-RBI games.
Over the last 10 games, she’s hitting at a .594 average with four home runs, 20 RBI and scored 12 runs.
Scoring in ACC Series
Notre Dame scored 36 runs in the three-game series with Georgia Tech this weekend. Its the most runs scored in a three-game ACC series ever, outscoring the 35 that Notre Dame scored in a three-game series in Charlottesville in 2014.
The Irish scored 36 runs in a three-game series against Seton Hall as a member of the BIG EAST in 2010. The 12 runs per game in the series is the highest average runs per game in a conference series in since 2000 when Notre Dame average 12.5 in a doubleheader with Providence in South Bend.
Record Setting Night
In the home opener against Detroit Mercy, the Fighting Irish scored 18 runs, tying a school record for runs scored and the largest margin of victory. The original record was set March 11, 1994 in an 18-0 victory over Robert Morris. Eight of nine starters had a hit and five players who didn’t start the contest registered one of the 18 hits. 15 different players scored a run in the victory.
Any Means Necessary
Offensive stand out Abby Sweet picked up right where she left off after a record-setting on-base percentage in 2021 (.537). She’s second on the team with a .512 OBP this season. (Gaskins – .537 OBP) Sweet owns a .406 batting average, drawn 11 walks and has been hit by 12 pitches. The 12 hit by pitches in 34 games ranks 10th nationally in HBP per game. Her .698 slugging percentage is second-highest among the Notre Dame regulars. (Gaskins – .777)
Bench Bombs
The Notre Dame bench came up big last week, helping the Irish go 4-1. In the midweek games, Rachel Allen hit her first career homer against Loyola Chicago. In the series with Georgia Tech, the Irish were 3-for-6 pinch hitting. Carlli Kloss and Quinn Biggio each had a hit off the bench. Joley Mitchell had a pinch hit appearance in the bottom of the eighth in the series finale, a walk-off three run home run to take the series. In total, Notre Dame pinch hitters are 20-for-64 (.313) this season.
Lineup Shuffle
After starting the season 14-4, Notre Dame made a move in the lineup switching Leea Hanks and Abby Sweet. Hanks took over in the lead off role and Sweet assumed Hanks’s role in the 3-spot. Since that move, the Irish are 11-2, Sweet is hitting for a .421 average with three doubles and three home runs. Hanks has four doubles, three triples and hit her first home run as the lead-off hitter. The biggest difference in the lineup has come from cleanup hitter Karina Gaskins. Since the move, Gaskins is hitting .697 with 23 RBI, six home runs, seen an 11:3 BB:K ratio and has scored 15 runs.
Working in TRANsistion
Emily Tran has appeared in 24 games this season, all of which have come as a pinch runner. In that role, she’s scored 10 times, and is 6-for-6 in stolen base attempts. She’s the primary speedster off the bench for the Irish. She entered as a pinch runner in the finale with Georgia Tech, forcing pressure as she scored with a passed ball and two wild pitches.
An Extra Run
After averaging five runs per game in 2021, the Irish offense has upped that number to 6.97 per game this season, ranking near the top 10 (NCAA stats not updated at time of publication) second in the ACC. Abby Sweet has scored 38 runs this season, ranking in the top 20 nationally in runs scored per game.
Top 25 wins
After falling in the first three games of the St. Pete Clearwater Elite Invitational, the Irish went on to take down a pair of Top 25 teams in LSU and Texas.
Against LSU, the Irish rallied late, using a fifth inning home run from Payton Tidd to tie it, and Miranda Johnson drove in the game-winning runs in the seventh. Tidd shut the door as the Irish earned the 8-6 win.
Notre Dame followed that with a 9-2 win over then No. 9-Texas. A 7-run fifth inning paved the way for the first win over a top 10-nationally ranked opponent since beating No. 3 Florida State in Tallahassee in 2019.
The Irish added a top 10 win after knocking off No. 7 Duke at home. Notre Dame used a 3-for-3, 4 RBI performance from Karina Gaskins and got a dominant start from Payton Tidd. Tidd worked 7.0 innings and allowed just one hit in the 8-1 victory.
Sister Sister
Notre Dame softball has a pair of sisters on its roster this season. Shelby and Cassidy Grimm are playing their second collegiate season together in 2022. Alexis and Anna Holloway are playing their first year of softball together this season. The extra year of eligibility for Alexis allowed for her to stay at Notre Dame long enough to play with her younger sister.