Midweek Matchups Begin Tuesday for Irish at Winthrop

Notre Dame at Winthrop – Game Notes

ROCK HILL, S.C. – The Notre Dame baseball team opens a two-game tilt at Winthrop starting on Tuesday, March 11.

THE MATCHUP

• The Irish enter the mid-week clash with an 8-4 overall record and are looking to bounce back from a weekend series at Wake Forest.
• The Eagles are 9-7 and have an 8-3 record in home games thus far in the 2025 season.
• Winthrop leads the all-time meetings between the two teams with a 2-1 record.
• The teams last played each other in the 2011 season in Rock Hill.

LAST TIME OUT

• Notre Dame fell in a three-game series against then-ranked No. 15 Wake Forest.
• Nick DeMarco, Bino Watters, and Estevan Moreno each hit a home run for the Irish in the opener against the Demon Deacons. Wake Forest, however, used an 11-run outburst in the bottom of the fourth to turn a 5-3 game into a 16-3 affair before taking the opener 19-5.
• The Irish battled their way back in game two. Down 6-1 late, Notre Dame plated three runs in the eighth and one in the ninth. The squad had both the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the top of the ninth but were unable to complete the comeback in the 6-5 final.
• The Demon Deacons plated runs in three of the first four innings in the series finale. The Irish broke through with a run in the top of the fifth to make it a 6-1 game. A three-run seventh and a two-run eighth lifted Wake Forest to the 11-1 decision.

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.