May 28, 2001
Game 7 Notes
#1 Notre Dame vs. #3 Florida International
May 28, 2001
Notre Dame Notes:
This was Notre Dame’s sixth chance to advance to a Super Regional or College World Series. The Irish advanced from the district playoffs in 1957 and played in the College World Series. The Irish also played in two previous winner-take-all Regional title games losing at Miami in 1992 (5-1) and at Mississippi St. last season (10-9). The ’93 and ’94 Irish teams advanced to the championship round but were eliminated in the first game. (the 1992-94 championships were played with the old 16-team tournament format).
Alec Porzel played in his 238th game today moving into a tie first place on the all-time games played list with J.J. Brock.
After beginning the game with double plays in the first and second innings, the Irish have grounded into nine double plays during the regional.
Irish CF Steve Stanley was 0-for-10 against Florida International coming into the regional, but he has gone 6-for-13 with two runs scored in the tournament. Stanley now has 266 career hits, just three short of a tie for fifth place on the Notre Dame all-time hit list with Mike Amrhein (269).
Steve Stanley’s hit to lead off the game was his 100th hit this season. Dan Peltier is the only other Irish player in history to have 100 hits in a season (115, 1989). He finished the game 3-for-5 with 102 hits for the season.
Notre Dame started J.P. Gagne today against FIU after Gagne started the previous night against UCSB, but pitched only one inning.
Brian Stavisky hit his fourth home run of the tournament in the first inning. That gives him five in the last seven games and improves his stat line for the weekend to 10-for-21, 3 2B, 4 HR, 11 RBI, and 28 total bases.
Notre Dame has outscored its opponents 59-11 in first innings this season and 36-5 in first innings at Eck Stadium.
Florida International Notes:
Florida International improves its all-time record against the Irish to 5-1.
First baseman Hector Nunez’s 2-for-4 effort improves his regional statistics to 7-for-17 (.381). He was hitting .377 coming into the tournament.
2B Tino Burgos extended his hitting streak to 11 games with his 1-for-3 effort.
William Collazo came in relief of Jerry Courtney in the fourth inning to win the game after throwing 153 pitches in the first game of the tournament against UCSB just three days ago. His final pitch count for the weekend reached 253 in his two wins.