April 20, 2012
BETHESDA, Mary. — Sophomore 1B Trey Mancini (Winter Haven, Fla./Winter Haven H.S.) belted a pair of solo home runs as Notre Dame secured a doubleheader sweep of Georgetown with a 7-4 victory Friday at Shirley Povich Field. Notre Dame improved to 21-16 overall and 8-6 in the BIG EAST, while the Hoyas dropped to 18-20 and 5-9.
Mancini paced the 15-hit attack for the Irish. He went 2-for-4 with round trippers in each of his first two plate appearances. Mancini has now collected six home runs on the season.
Freshman RHP Matt Ternowchek (Glenmoore, Pa./Downington East H.S.) picked up the victory with 2.0 scoreless innings of relief. The righty did allow a couple of hits and walk, but also collected a strikeout. Ternowchek improved to 3-1 on the season.
Sophomore RHP Dan Slania (Tucson, Ariz./Salpointe Catholic H.S.) picked up his BIG EAST-leading eighth save of the season. He tossed 1.1 scoreless innings of relief with a punch out and walk. Slania is now tied with three others for fifth all-time in school history with 12 saves.
Junior 2B Frank DeSico (Cleveland, Ohio/St. Ignatius H.S.) went 3-for-5 with a run scored and RBI, while four other Notre Dame starters had at least two hits. Junior C Joe Hudson (Odessa, Fla./Tampa Jesuit H.S.) went 2-for-4 with an RBI, as did freshman LF Mac Hudgins (Richmond, Va./Douglass Freeman H.S.). Hudgins had a double and triple. Senior RF Alex Robinson (Dallas, Texas/First Baptist Academy) went 2-for-5 with an RBI single, while freshman SS Jason McMurray (West Des Moines, Iowa/Dowling Catholic H.S.) went 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Mancini’s first blast came in the top of the second inning and gave the Irish a 1-0 lead. Notre Dame extended its lead to 2-0 later in the inning following Hudgins’ RBI triple.
After Georgetown cut the Irish lead in half with a run in the bottom of the third, Mancini struck again with a mammoth blast in the top of the fourth that pushed Notre Dame’s lead to 3-1. The home run not only cleared the left centerfield wall, but also caromed off the facade of a storage shed some 50-feet behind the outfield wall.
The Irish took advantage of a Georgetown base-running blunder in the home half of the fourth. The Hoyas had runners on second and third with one out. Paul Bello grounded out to third base, which plated a run to bring Georgetown back within a run, 3-2, but Danny Poplawski rounded too far off the third base bag and was gunned down to end the inning.
Notre Dame rode the momentum and put the game away in the top of the fifth inning. McMurray tripled, DeSico singled, Bull singled and sophomore 3B Eric Jagielo doubled (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North H.S.). Now leading 5-2 and the bases loaded following an intentional walk to Mancini, Hudson pushed the Irish lead to 6-2 with an RBI fielder’s choice.
Georgetown went to the bullpen and relieved Neal Dennison, but Robinson rifled Thomas Polus’ first offering back up the middle for an RBI single that made it 7-2.
The Hoyas did get a couple of runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to climb within three runs, 7-4, but senior LHP Joe Spano (Verona, N.J./Seton Hall Prep) and Slania did the rest.
Dennison was roughed up for seven runs, all earned, on 10 hits in 4.2 innings of work. He struck out one and walked two.
Junior RHP Adam Norton (Highland, Ind./Andrean H.S.) was not sharp. He allowed two earned runs on six hits, including four doubles, in just 4.0 innings of work – his shortest outing of the year.
Notre Dame returns to the diamond against Georgetown at Noon Saturday at Shirley Povich Field in Bethesda, Md. In-game updates will be available on Twitter at @NDBaseball and Facebook at NDBaseball, and fans can listen to all the action locally on 103.1 FM and on the Internet at UND.com.
— ND —