April 11, 2001
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Senior shortstop Alec Porzel (Lisle, Ill./Naperville North High School) hit a two-run homer to become the first Notre Dame baseball player ever to reach 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in his career while the fourth-ranked Irish held off a late Detroit rally to post a 9-8 victory over the visiting Titans, in non-conference action Wednesday at Eck Stadium.
Notre Dame (27-5-1) used four runs in the fourth and three in the seventh to claim a 9-1 lead but Detroit (2-24) made things interesting by scoring five runs in the eighth and two more in the ninth.
Sophomore righthander Ryan Kalita (2-0) continued Notre Dame’s string of solid outings by starting pitchers, striking out four Detroit batters while allowing one run on three hits and one walk over the first five innings.
Titans freshman righthander Keith Astrauckas (0-4) took the loss, after allowing two runs, four hits and a walk in the game’s first two innings.
Notre Dame sophomore closer Matt Laird nearly saw the game slip through his fingers-literally-as his three wild pitches in the ninth helped Detroit trim the lead to one while advancing the tying run to third base. But Pete Zigouras grounded out to reserve shortstop Ben Cooke for the game’s final out.
Sophomore lefthander Omar Diaz faced just three Irish batters in the fourth inning, walking Kris Billmaier and serving up a one-out single to Andrew Bushey. Mike Holba then greeted senior righthander David Wampler with an RBI single and moved up on the ensuing errant throw by leftfielder Matt Corbett (with Bushey also scoring on the play). Wampler then uncorked a wild pitch before Steve Stanley and Steve Sollmann delivered RBI singles for the 6-1 lead.
Porzel-who also recently became Notre Dame’s career doubles leader (63)-finally reached the 30-30 milestone by hitting his first home run of the season in the seventh, after Stanley had sent a leadoff double down the leftfield line and scored on Sollmann’s single to center. Porzel then sent the next pitch from sophomore lefthander Josh Lambert over the leftfield fence to become the first member of Notre Dame’s 30-30 club (he has 32 career stolen bases, in 209 games played).
Detroit’s eighth-inning rally included four hits and one Irish error that led to five runs, one of which was unearned. Two more hits and another error then led to a pair of unearned Titans runs in the ninth, as Laird entered the 9-6 game with one out and two runners on before working out of his own jam for his fourth save of the season.
Notre Dame entered the day ranked second in the nation for team ERA (2.42), with that number rising slightly to 2.50 after yielding five earned runs to the Titans.
DETROIT (2-24) 0-1-0 0-0-0 0-5-2 – 8 11 2
NOTRE DAME (27-5-1) 2-0-0 4-0-0 3-0-X – 9 12 2
Keith Astraukas (L, 0-4), Omar Diaz (4), David Wampler (4), Michael Girimonte (6), Josh Lambert (7), Matt Speiss (8) and Ryan Rumberger.
Ryan Kalita (W, 2-0), Brian Kaplan (6), Nick Colagiovanni (8), Matt Laird (9, SV-4) and Andrew Bushey, Soran Leahy (8).
Home Run: Nick Smith, DET (solo in 2nd, 1st of season), Alec Porzel (one on in 7th, 1st of season).
Double: Steve Stanley (ND).