BLACKSBURG — The third-ranked Notre Dame baseball team finished off the regular season on a high note with a 7-1 win over Virginia Tech on Saturday afternoon at Atlantic Union Bank Park. With the win, the Irish (29-10, 25-10 ACC) swept the series from Virginia Tech (27-23, 16-20 ACC) for their third ACC sweep of the season. They finish the regular season with an ACC-best 25-10 conference record.
As they did all series long, the Irish pitching staff was dominant on the mound in the series finale. The trio of Joe Sheridan, Alex Rao and Will Mercer combined to allow just one run on the afternoon. Sheridan went the first four innings followed by two innings from Rao and the final three from Mercer. Rao picked up his second win of the season and Mercer earned his second save.
At the plate, two three-run innings propelled the Irish to the win. Trailing 1-0 in the fifth, the Irish scored two on an RBI double from Spencer Myers and an RBI single from Niko Kavadas. In the ninth, David LaManna hit a solo home run and Kavadas hit a two-run blast to put the game out of reach.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Hokies jumped out to the lead in the bottom of the third. Tanner Thomas led the inning off with a single and later scored on a ground out by TJ Rumfield. After the first three innings, Virginia Tech led 1-0.
The Hokie lead lasted until the fifth inning when the Irish bats got going at the plate. Two infield singles and a throwing error got two runners in scoring position with two outs for Myers. He hit a double to left to score Jared Miller and Zack Prajzner to put the Irish up 2-1. With the hit, Myers extended his hitting streak to 15 games. Later in the inning, Kavadas singled to center on the 10th pitch of the at-bat to score Myers.
The bats kept it going in the sixth inning, stringing together a number of hits with two outs. Back to back two out singles put runners on the corners for LaManna. He took a pitch the other way for a single to right field to score Brooks Coetzee and extend the Irish lead to 4-1.
The Irish added a couple insurance runs in the ninth via the long ball to break the game open. LaManna led the inning off with a solo home run to left for his second home run of the year. Later in the inning, Kavadas crushed a two run home run to center to increase the lead to 7-1. It was Kavadas’ 16th home run of the season, the most by an Irish player in a season since 1999.
UP NEXT
The Irish are heading south for the 2021 ACC Baseball Championship at Truist Park in Charlotte. The Irish are the No. 1 overall seed heading into the tournament and pool play will be held starting Tuesday, May 25 until Friday, May 28. The top-seeded Irish will face off with the eight-seed Virginia and 12-seed Virginia Tech in pool play. The full pool play will be announced on Sunday afternoon.
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