The (5-2) Irish will travel to Cookeville, Tenn., for a three-game series at Tennessee Tech (March 1-3). Led by John P. and Catherine Murphy Head Baseball Coach Shawn Stiffler in his second season with the Irish, Notre Dame welcomes 19 newcomers to the roster.
Click to view game notes here.
Schedule
| Date | Time (ET) | Opponent | Location | TV |
| March 1 | 4 p.m. | Tennessee Tech |
Quillen Field at Bush Stadium at the Averitt Express Baseball Complex |
None |
| March 2 | 3 p.m. | Tennessee Tech | Quillen Field at Bush Stadium at the Averitt Express Baseball Complex | None |
| March 3 | 2 p.m. | Tennessee Tech | Quillen Field at Bush Stadium at the Averitt Express Baseball Complex | None |
By The Numbers
| 2 |
Shawn Stiffler is in his second season with the Irish, after leading Notre Dame to a 30-24 season in 2023. He owns a 375-224 career record. Stiffler came to South Bend after spending the 10 seasons at the helm of the VCU program. |
| 2 |
Two Irish made their debuts in an Irish uniform at FIU. RHP Hagan Ward and RHP Keenan Mork made their first career collegiate apperances. RHP Sammy Cooper and INF Casey Kmet also made their first appearances of the season. |
| 3 |
Notre Dame pitchers have combined for three saves, which ranks tied for third in the ACC. RHP Nate Hardman owns two, while RHP Bennett Flynn earned one at FIU. |
| 3 |
Three Irish pitchers have been named to the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Watch List: RHPs Radek Birkholz, Bennett Flynn and Nate Hardman. All three played major roles in the series sweep of Rice. |
| 4 |
Notre Dame’s four wins to begin the season is the program’s best start since 2004, when the Irish opened the season 7-0. |
| 4 |
D1Baseball tabbed four Irish players among the top national players in their positions. Jack Penney enters 2024 ranked No. 32 among the nation’s shortstops, Simon Baumgardt ranked No. 50 amond third basemen, David Glancy ranked No. 97 among outfielders, and Jackson Dennies ranked No. 105 among starting pitchers. |
| 4 |
The Irish are set to face four teams ranked in the preseason Top 25 in 2024, including No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 10 Clemson, No. 13 NC State and No. 15 North Carolina. |
| 9 |
Nine of Notre Dame’s 14 home runs this season came from graduate transfers. OF David Glancy leads the team with four, while OF Tito Flores and INF Simon Baumgardt own two, and INF Josh Hahn has posted one. |
| 10 |
Jack Penney tied for the Irish team lead with 10 home runs in 2023, and will look to be a major piece of the Notre Dame lineup in 2024. His 1.000 stolen-base percentage (8-8) in 2023 tied for third all-time in single-season Irish records. |
| 19 |
The Irish introduce 19 newcomers, featuring 10 freshmen and nine grad transfers, to the 2023 roster. |
| 100 |
Perfect Game ranked two Irish players in their Top 100 Lists for each class. David Lally Jr. ranked No. 69 among the nation’s sophomores, and Jack Penney came in at No. 71 among juniors. |
| .988 |
The Irish own a .988 fielding percentage on the season, ranking second in the ACC. |
2024
- Following the series sweep at Rice (Feb. 16-18), Notre Dame received votes in the National College Baseball Writers Association poll.
- Notre Dame’s three wins to begin the season was the program’s best start since 2010, when the Irish opened the season 3-0 with a three-game sweep of Mississippi Valley State.
- Notre Dame’s four wins to begin the season is the program’s best start since 2004, when the Irish opened the season 7-0.
New Lineup in 2024
- Notre Dame returns five regular starters from the 2023 lineup in DM Jefferson, Brady Gumpf, TJ Williams, Jack Penney and Estevan Moreno.
- With the graduation of key pieces of the 2023 lineup (and 2022 College World Series team) in Carter Putz, Zack Prajzner, Jack Zyska, and Brooks Coetzee, new faces for the Irish will earn the opportunity to compete.
- Notre Dame welcomes nine graduate transfers and 10 freshmen to the roster in the 2024 season.
- Several transfers will look to earn significant playing time, including OF Tito Flores (Michigan), OF David Glancy (St. John’s), INF Josh Hahn (UCLA), INF Simon Baumgardt (Tulane), RHP Will Jacobsen (Harvard), RHP Bennett Flynn (Davidson) and RHP Nate Hardman (Evansville).
The Outfield
- Notre Dame returns three experienced outfielders in TJ Williams, DM Jefferson and Brady Gumpf. Williams, one of the top defensive centerfielders in college baseball, led the ACC in 2023 in sacrifice bunts (11).
- The three are joined by graduate transfers Tito Flores and David Glancy. Flores is a two-time Big Ten all-tournament team selection, while Glancy led St. John’s with 13 home runs in 2023, and is ranked as one of D1Baseball’s Top 100 outfielders entering 2024.
- OF Drayk Bowen also marked his first appearance for the Irish at Rice as a pinch runner.
- No. 1 Jefferson: Has played most games as the starting DH for the Irish in 2024, and ties for the ACC lead in HBP (5).
- No. 2 Glancy: Has hit two home runs in each of the past two series – at Rice and at FIU. At 0.57 homers per game, ranks tied for fifth in the ACC. Was responsible for Notre Dame’s first home run of the season, a no-doubter into the wind.
- No. 6 Williams: A four-year member of the Irish, and a leader on the team, Williams currently leads the Irish with a .500 batting average, ranking tied for fifth in the ACC. He posted the first multi-home run game of his career with two home runs in the 13-4 win at FIU (2/23/24)
- No. 7 Flores: Ties for the team lead in RBI (10) on the season. Hit Notre Dame’s first grand slam of the season in the ninth inning of the Rice series finale, cementing the sweep. On the weekend, he posted three hits and two runs, drawing two walks.
- No. 21 Gumpf: Has seen action in six games, starting two and notching a hit.
The Infield
- Jack Penney and Estevan Moreno will look to build off their success in the infield in 2023. Penney tied for the team lead with 10 home runs before being sidelined by an injury, while Moreno, in a breakout freshman season, became the first Irish player since 2016 to hit three home runs in a single game (4/21/23 vs. Virginia).
- The Irish also return Connor Hincks, Casey Kmet, Nick DeMarco and Rory Fox, all of whom saw playing time last season.
- Joining the infield are impact transfers Simon Baumgardt and Josh Hahn. Baumgardt is ranked in D1Baseball’s Top 50 third basemen entering 2024.
- No. 3 Moreno: Earned four starts in the middle infield so far this season.
- No. 11 Penney: Leads the team in walks drawn (9) and ties in stolen bases (3).
- No. 12 Hincks: Started six games throughout the infield for the Irish, posting two home runs.
- No. 15 Hahn: Recorded the go-ahead RBI after being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the first game of the series at Rice.
- No. 18 Baumgardt: Totaled three hits and three runs with four RBI at Rice.
Behind the Plate
- With the departure of Vinny Martinez, the catcher position is open entering 2023-24 for the Irish, and multiple players could compete for playing time from the catchers group, which includes senior Tony Lindwedel, junior Joey Spence, and freshmen Carson Tinney, Troy Reader and Davis Johnson.
- No. 8 Tinney: Started three games at catcher; hit the first homer of his career to score the go-ahead run in the series finale at Rice.
- No. 13 Spence: Started one game at catcher at FIU.
- No. 28 Lindwedel: Started three games at catcher.
On the Mound
- Senior Jackson Dennies leads a group with another year of collegiate experience under their belts. Dennies will be a mainstay started for the Irish, coming off a season in which he pitched 46.1 innings and posted 49 strikeouts. Dennies is ranked in D1Baseball’s Top 150 starting pitchers in the nation entering 2024.
- Caden Spivey, David Lally and Matt Bedford all return for the Irish and will look to see significant time on the mound, in addition to Will Jacobsen, a Harvard transfer and 2023 second-team All-Ivy selection.
- Radek Birkholz also returns for the Irish, and will join transfers Bennett Flynn and Nate Hardman in relief roles for Notre Dame.
- Jack Findlay continues to recover from an injury.
- Rice: The Irish started Spivey (Friday), Dennies (Saturday) and Bedford (Sunday). Birkholz (Friday), RHP Tobey McDonough (Saturday) and LHP Ryan Lynch (Sunday) earned the wins.
- Hardman posted two saves on the weekend, a figure which was tied for the ACC lead after the first week.
- FIU: The Irish started Spivey (Friday), Dennies (Saturday Game One), Bedford (Saturday Game Two) and McDonough (Sunday) at FIU. Flynn and RHP Jack Radel earned the two wins, and Bedford and Hardman absorbed the losses. Radel’s win was the first of his college career, while Flynn’s win was his first in an Irish uniform. Flynn also earned a save, his first at Notre Dame.
John P. And Catherine Murphy Head Baseball Coach Shawn Stiffler
- Shawn Stiffler is in his second season with the Irish, and led Notre Dame to a 30-24 record in his first season. He owns a 375-224 career record.
- Stiffler came to South Bend after spending the last 10 seasons at the helm of the VCU program where he accrued a 340-198 overall record, and dominated the Atlantic 10 with a record of 146-71.
- He was a monumental piece in VCU’s success where he turned the Rams into one of the most consistent programs in the country, as it is one of just seven programs nationally to earn 34 or more wins in each of the last eight full seasons.
- In Stiffler’s 10-seasons at the helm of the VCU program, the Rams won Atlantic 10 Regular Season Championships in 2017, 2019 and 2021. The 2017 A-10 Regular Season Championship was the first in program history at VCU.
- Stiffler also led VCU to the NCAA Championship Tournament in 2015, 2021 and 2022.
- Stiffler earned American Baseball Coaches’ Association (ABCA) East-Region Coach of the Year honors following the 2015 season in which he led VCU to the A-10 Championship and its first-ever Super Regional..
- The 2019 A-10 Coach of the Year guided four Rams to All-American honors, five Freshman All-Americans, 20 ABCA All-Region honorees and 48 All A-10 selections.
Meet the Assistants
- Assistant coach Logan Robbins (position players) enters his second season at Notre Dame and joined the Irish after spending seven seasons at Old Dominion in Norfolk, Virginia.
- Robbins led the Monarch offense to new heights as hitters finished second in Conference USA in 2021 and 2022, hitting a .301 and a .296 team average, respectively.
- In 2021, the Monarchs finish second in the country with 105 home runs, smashing the previous home run record of 67, followed by a 2022 squad that hit 128 home runs as a team, finishing third nationally.
- Robbins offense finished in the top 15 nationally in home runs, home runs per game, scoring and slugging percentage.
- Robbins played at Western Kentucky University and was a 10th round draft pick by the Atlanta Braves in 2011.
- Assistant coach Seth Voltz (pitchers) begins his second season with Notre Dame, having joined the Fighting Irish after spending the 2022 season under Stiffler at VCU, and previously worked as an assistant coach at Wofford College.
- Voltz led the Rams to the 2022 Atlantic 10 Championship, winning 17-consecutive games `Hill Regional where they notched wins over North Carolina and Georgia.
- VCU finished the 2022 campaign with a 42-20 record, and ranked in the top 20 in Division I in ERA (3.91 – 9th), WHIP (1.29 – 12th) and walks allowed per nine innings (3.12 – 10th).
- Voltz was an assistant coach with the Wofford Terriers from 2017-20.
- He helped the Terriers win the first Southern Conference Regular Season Championship in program history in 2021, after a 36-21 regular season and a 21-9 SoCon record.
- The 492 strikeouts in the 2021 campaign is the second-most in SoCon history and the third-most in program history.
- After graduating from VCU in 2012, where he was a four-year letterwinner under Stiffler, he began his coaching career as the Rams’ volunteer coach and then coached as an assistant at UT Martin from 2015-16.
- Ryan Munger (position players/catchers) assumes an assistant coach role after serving as Notre Dame’s volunteer assistant coach in 2023. Munger served as an assistant coach at Davidson for the previous seven seasons, and was elevated to recruiting coordinator in July of 2018.
- After joining Davidson in the fall of 2013, Munger worked primarily with the catchers and assisted with hitting. In 2022, he helped guide the Wildcats to a 43-13 overall mark, a 20-4 Atlantic 10 Conference record as Davidson earned the 2022 Atlantic 10 Regular Season Championship, finishing a game ahead of Stiffler’s VCU team.
- In his time with Davidson, Munger helped lead the program to new heights, winning the most games in a season in program history in 2017, 2018 and further improving that total during the 2022 season. He led the Wildcats to their first-ever conference title in the program’s 115-year history in 2017, and was just the second four-seed to ever sweep an NCAA Regional.
- Munger played baseball at Duke and was a team captain in 2012 and 2013.