NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The Notre Dame baseball team took its three-game winning streak on the road for the final week of the regular season and the offense came alive in the Windy City. The offense exploded in Notre Dame’s 12-4 win over Northwestern on Tuesday afternoon at Bobby and Berenice Miller Park.
Eric Gilgenbach brought in two runs on his first career triple that was part of a four-run first inning to open the game for the Irish. Niko Kavadas and Jack Zyska had back-to-back solo home runs in the second to increase the early lead.
Northwestern (23-25) fought back with four runs in the fifth but the Irish got most of them back in the next inning. Spencer Myers recorded his first career home run to start it off and the Irish (23-26) scored six unanswered runs over the next two innings to take control and seal the win.
Listen in as @spencermyers21 discussed hitting his first career ?☘️#GoIrish #PassTheShillelagh pic.twitter.com/c7MFT78W7i
— Notre Dame Baseball (@NDBaseball) May 15, 2019
How It Happened
The Irish opened the game with a bang, scoring four runs in the opening frame. Daniel Jung plated the first run on a sacrifice fly that scored Myers. Gilgenbach was up next and he smashed a ball into the gap in left center that went all the way to the wall. Kavadas and Zyska scored and Gilgenbach ended up at third for his first career triple. Zack Prajzner continued the offensive output in the first with a RBI single through the left side that scored Gilgenbach from third.
Kavadas added another run to the Irish lead in the top of the second. With two outs in the inning, the sophomore lefty crushed a ball over the wall in right for a solo home run, his team-high 11th of the season. Up next was Zyska and he also crushed a ball, this time over the wall in left for a solo shot and his second home run of the season and the Irish held a 6-0 lead after two innings.
With the Boston College series starting early this week on Thursday, the Irish deployed a staff day on the mound and Belcik got it started against the Wildcats. He got out of a bases loaded jam in the first by ending the inning with a strikeout and kept Northwestern off the scoreboard.
After the first, Belcik settled in and retired the Wildcats in order in the second inning. In the third inning, he faced the minimum after a double-play ended the inning as the lead-off batter reached base on a hit-by-pitch.
Belcik exited after the third and Shane Combs came out of the pen and worked around a hit in the fourth to keep the Wildcats scoreless.
Northwestern finally broke through in the fifth and had a big inning added by a couple of Irish errors. The Wildcats scored four runs in the fifth but Tommy Vail came on and got the final out of the inning with the bases loaded to preserve the Irish lead.
The Irish immediately responded in the next half inning. Carter Putz led the inning off with a single and moved into scoring position after a sacrifice bunt. Myers stepped up and hit a blast over the wall in right for his first career home run. The Irish got another run back in the sixth. Zyska doubled down the line in left and scored on Jung’s RBI single up the middle.
Notre Dame continued to tack on runs in the top of the seventh. Prajzner and Putz hit back-to-back singles after a strikeout began the inning. Jared Miller sent them both home after his RBI double to left made it all the wall to the wall. Miller came around to score later in the inning on a sacrifice fly and the Irish held a commanding 12-4 lead at the end of the inning.