April 2, 2005

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Saturday’s Notre Dame-Rutgers doubleheader at RU’s Class of ’53 Complex has been rained out and the teams now will attempt to play two games on Sunday, starting at noon EDT (11:00 in South Bend), while the third game of the series will be shifted to Monday (at noon EDT). If the teams are unable to play two games on Sunday, they then will attempt to play twice on Monday, likely starting earlier than noon.

Notre Dame’s probable starting rotation includes junior lefthander Tom Thornton in game-1, followed by sophomore righthander Derik Olvey in the second game. Sophomore righthander Jeff Samardzija – slated to join the team tonight after participating in spring football practice – currently is slated to start game-3.

The Rutgers likely rotation includes three righthanders – seniors Aaron Kalb and Tom Malafrontes and junior OJ DeChristofano.

It has been a soggy day throughout the BIG EAST, as three other doubleheaders (West Virginia at Connecticut, Pittsburgh at St. John’s and Boston College at Seton Hall) have been rained out while Villanova vs. Georgetown (in Bethesda, Md.) has been pushed back to a 3:00 p.m. start.

BIG EAST makeup policy calls for one day to be used for making up a maximum of two games. This policy applies only to three-game series and not to the pairs of doubleheaders played last week (when two SJU-UConn games were lost due to rain). Final standings are based on won-loss percentage, not the traditional “games-back” format – meaning that (for example) a 19-4 team would finish ahead of a 20-5 team.

Previous seasons have featured a handful of series that did not have a Monday makeup-day option but that is not the case for Notre Dame’s seven remaining BIG EAST series – as the Irish do not have league games during the pre-finals weekend (April 29-30, vs. Cleveland State) while the final-week BIG EAST season now includes all Friday-Saturday series, with Sunday (May 22) available for what could be key makeup games.