March 13, 2000
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (3/13/00) – Freshman righthander Brian Rauch turned in seven strong innings and the University of North Florida batters chipped away for runs in four different innings, as the Ospreys ended the Notre Dame baseball team’s five-game winning streak with a 6-1 victory Monday night at Harmon Stadium.
North Florida (22-7) – the nation’s No. 3 – ranked team in Division II and the host school for the three-week, rotating-teams Kennel Club Classic-staked a 2-0 lead in the second inning before adding another run on the fifth, two in the sixth and a final run in the eighth.
Rauch (1-0) shut out Notre Dame for the first seven innings before being tagged for the lone Irish run early in the eighth inning. He scattered six hits over the seven-plus innings while striking out four Irish batters.
Irish sophomore righthander Drew Duff (0-1) suffered the loss, allowing three runs on six hits and three walks over the first five innings, with three strikeouts.
UNF struck for two runs in the second inning, with Adam Brown drawing a one-out walk before Jeff Stockton sent a two-out, first-pitch double over the head of diving sophomore centerfielder Steve Stanley Nick Steppe then played the second run with a 2-2 single to center.
The Ospreys manufactured another run in the fifth. Kyle Catrett led off the inning with an infield single deep in the hole at short and stole second before coming home on Kevin Kay’s two-out bloop single to right.
The hosts extended their lead in the sixth, versus junior righthander Mike Carlin. Brown hit a leadoff single up the middle and Brian Fleetwood followed with a perfect bunt that stopped just short of junior second baseman Ben Cooke. Stockton then was hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out. Carlin walked Steppe to force in a run but retired the next two batters before hitting Lee McCool with a pitch to send home another run.
Notre Dame ended the shutout bid in the eighth. Cooke led off the inning with a double to the alley in left, ending the day for Rauch. An O’Toole groundout versus reliever Dan Roszel advanced Cooke to third. and Stanley then doubled inside the third-base bag, extending his hitting streak to 10 games.
UNF closed the scoring with an unearned run versus sophomore righthander Matt Buchmeier. Catrett singled through the left side and stole second before Bushey mishandled a slow roller off the bat of Brian Rapp. McCool then grounded out to Cooke, plating Catrett with the sixth run for the Ospreys.
The Irish had six runners reach base through the first five innings but saw two thrown out on the basepaths while the other four were left stranded.
Notre Dame takes a day off before returning to action against Butler, on Wednesday morning at Harmon Stadium (11:00 a.m.).
Notre Dame 0-0-0 0-0-0 0-1-0 -- 1 7 2North Florida 0-2-0 0-1-2 0-1-x -- 6 9 0Duff, Carlin (6), Buchmeier (7) and Nussbaum. Rauch, Roszel (8) and Kay.