April 1, 2003
Freshman lefthander Tom Thornton logged another strong outing while the Notre Dame offense scored early and often as the 19th-ranked Irish baseball team registered its eighth straight victory, 15-5 over visiting Detroit in Tuesday-night action at Eck Stadium.
Notre Dame (17-6) sent 12 batters to the plate in a nine-run bottom of the second before batting around again in the sixth, with three runs in that inning providing a 14-1 cushion. Detroit (3-12) used four hits and three walks to push across four runs in the seventh but another freshman lefthander, walk-on Matt Arminio, came on in the eighth as the night’s second Irish reliever and retired all six batters he faced to close the game.
Thornton (2-0) – whose season ERA now stands at 1.27 – kept all 15 of his outs in the infield, with four strikeouts, nine groundouts and a pair of infield popups in his five-inning stint. The 6-foot-7 lefty yielded a run on three hits in the first inning but held the Titans to a pair of hits over the next four innings while not walking a batter.
Twelve Irish batters combined on a 17-hit attack, with freshman third baseman Greg Lopez batting 3-for-5 from the bottom of the lineup (with an RBI and run scored) while junior second baseman Steve Sollmann (run), senior rightfielder Kris Billmaier (two runs) and freshman DH Steve Andres (two-run triple, run scored) each recorded two hits. Freshman leftfielder Cody Rizzo scored three times, after reaching on a single and a pair of times in which he was hit by a pitch, while surging sophomore first baseman Matt Edwards had an RBI groundout and a two-run double (giving him 12 RBI in the last four games).
Sophomore shortstop Matt Macri nearly lifted an opposite-field home run over the rightfield fence – but the ball hit off the top of the fence and remained in play for a two-run triple in his second at-bat of the nine-run second.
Sollmann’s 14th multi-hit game of the season (2-for-4) left his batting average at an even .400 while Edwards’ team-leading RBI total now stands at 25 in 22 games played. Thornton’s outing dropped the Notre Dame ERA by starting pitchers to 2.80, with the overall team ERA at 3.75.
Detroit 1-0-0 0-0-0 4-0-0 - 5 9 3Notre Dame 1-9-0 0-1-3 0-1-X - 15 17 1
Michael Girimonte (L, 0-3), Rob Galbraith (2), Jason Lukasik (6), Tim Andrzejak (7) and Mike Mitrevski.
Tom Thornton (W, 2-0), Scott Bickford (6), Matt Arminio (8) and Javi Sanchez, Cody Rizzo (7).
Triples: Matt Macri (ND), Steve Andres (ND).
Doubles: Tim Poley (DET) 2, Matt Edwards (ND).