NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The sixth-ranked Notre Dame baseball team came out on top after a back and forth midweek battle with Valparaiso Tuesday night at Frank Eck Stadium. The Irish ended up on top, 8-7, in a game that had four lead changes and two ties.
The Irish (21-8) had big nights at the plate from Carter Putz and Spencer Myers. Putz led the way with a team-high three RBI and Spencer Myers reached based four times against Valpo. Aidan Tyrell got the Irish going with 4.2 innings to start and Liam Simon finished the game off with 2.1 innings as he picked up his fifth win of the year.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish jumped out to an early lead after scoring in each of the first two innings.
In the first, Putz brought home Myers and Ryan Cole on a single up the middle to put the Irish up 2-0. In the second, Myers singled up the middle to score Zack Prajzner and the Irish lead grew to 3-0.
Valpo dug into the Irish lead in the fourth after they got their first hit of the game to begin the inning. Steven Fitzsimmons made it over to third with two outs and came home on Kaleb Hannah’s single to center. Tyrell limited Valpo to just the one run and the Irish held a 3-1 advantage.
Valpo took the lead in the fifth inning after they scored three on a bases clearing double from Kyle Schmack. They added another run in the inning and held a 5-3 lead after four and half innings.
The lead did not last long as the Irish jumped back in front in the very next half inning. The Irish loaded the bases and scored the first run after Niko Kavadas got hit by a pitch to bring home Kyle Hess. Myers came home on the next at bat as Putz hit a sacrifice fly to right to tie the game. The Irish took the lead after Cole came home on the passed ball. After five innings, Notre Dame led 6-5.
Valpo jumped back in front in the top of the sixth. They got runners on second and third after an error and the very next batter singled to right field to score both and put them in front 7-6.
The Irish answered right back in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game. Notre Dame loaded the bases again and Prajzner scored on the ground out from Cole. After six innings, the score was tied at 7-7.
Notre Dame regained the lead in the seventh as the bases were loaded for the third-straight inning. Hess grounded to the second baseman to score Jack Brannigan on the play and he reached via a throwing error. After seven innings of play, Notre Dame was ahead 8-7.
Simon came on for the final out of the seventh inning and finished the game off for the Irish. He allowed just two hits and no runs as he secured his fifth win of the year to tie the team lead.
UP NEXT
The Irish stay home as they welcome North Carolina to Frank Eck Stadium for a three game series. The Irish and Tar Heels will kick it off Friday night at 5:30 for the first game of the series and all three games on the weekend will be broadcast on ACCNX.
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