March 31, 2018
By Megan Golden
DURHAM, N.C. — The University of Notre Dame baseball team fell to Duke, 6-3, on Saturday afternoon at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
Notre Dame (11-15, 4-7) suffered its second straight loss and dropped the weekend series against the Blue Devils (23-5, 8-3).
How It Happened
Duke got on the board in the third inning, when it led off with a walk and a single. Three Irish errors in the frame helped the Blue Devils plate two unearned runs and head to the fourth with a 2-0 advantage.
Notre Dame responded in the top of the fourth, when Nick Podkul doubled, and Matt Vierling singled in the first run for the Irish, cutting the deficit to 2-1.
Niko Kavadas was hit by a pitch in the Irish sixth, and with two outs, Eric Gilgenbach blasted his fifth homer of the season to left. The two-run homer gave the Irish a 3-2 lead.
Sheehan, who had worked 6.0 innings and allowed just one earned run, hit the first batter of the seventh inning and gave up a single in the next at-bat. Anthony Holubecki relieved Sheehan and gave up a two-out three-run homer to give Duke a 5-3 lead.
Zack Martin entered in the eighth and walked the lead-off batter, Max Miller. Miller stole second and scored on a two-out, RBI-single from Jimmy Herron to extend Duke’s lead to 6-3.
Game Notes
- Notre Dame trails the all-time series, 6-11, and owns a 4-8 record at Duke.
- The Irish move to 3-5 versus top-20 teams in 2018.
- The Irish own a 4-7 record in true road games this season.
- Over the last three games, Notre Dame starting pitchers own a 2.04 ERA (5 ER/22.0 IP).
- Tommy Sheehan worked a career-high-tying 6.0 innings and allowed three earned runs.
- Irish outfielder Matt Vierling has hit safely in 17 of 19 games in the month of March, batting .342 (25-73) with two doubles, one triple, three homers and 19 RBI during that span. Vierling owns eight multi-hit games in March.
- Alex Kerschner has hit safely in 12 of his last 15 games.
- Jake Johnson has recorded a hit in six of his last seven games.
Up Next
Notre Dame and Duke meet for the series finale at noon ET on Sunday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The game will be available on ACC Network Extra and 103.1 FM (South Bend)/WatchND.
For a behind-the-scenes look at the Irish baseball program, follow @NDBaseball on Twitter and @NotreDameBaseball on Instagram. For tickets to an Irish baseball game, click here.
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Megan Golden, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since August of 2016. In her role, she coordinates all media efforts for the Notre Dame baseball and women’s soccer programs. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Golden is a 2014 graduate of Saint Mary’s College and former Irish women’s basketball manager. Prior to arriving at Notre Dame, she worked in public relations with the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox.