May 25, 2001
NOTRE DAME, Ind. –
Aaron Heilman set the Notre Dame record for victories in a season (15-0) while the return of two injured starters helped jumpstart the team’s offense, as the eighth-ranked and top-seeded Irish opened play in the NCAA South Bend Regional with a 12-4 victory over Wisconsin-Milwaukee in soggy conditions Friday night at Frank Eck Stadium.
A series of rainshowers pushed the start of the game back nearly two-and-a-half hours, with a 6:24 start time, while the night’s second game did not finish until 12:47 a.m.
Notre Dame (47-11-1) next will play Florida International on Saturday at approximately 3:30 EST (equivalent to Chicago time), with the winner of that game heading to Sunday’s championship day. Third-seeded FIU (41-18) rode the pitching of lefthander Willie Collazo, who outdueled fellow All-American James Garcia of UC Santa Barbara (39-16) in the 17-4 Golden Panthers win. UCSB will make a quick return to Eck Stadium for Saturday’s noon elimination game versus UWM.
Saturday’s schedule sets up a probable matchup between ND senior righthander Danny Tamayo (a Miami native) and an FIU squad that includes 14 Miami natives on its full roster.
Heilman – who earlier in the day became a four-year All-American after being named to the Collegiate Baseball first team – warmed up three times due to the rainstorms but the 6-5, 225-pound righthander was not to be denied, logging 131 pitches while striking out eight UWM batters. He walked four batters and a three-run homer shot in the 8th.
Wisconsin-Milwaukee (39-17) entered the day ranked second in the nation with a .354 team batting average.
Heilman has won 25 of his last 26 decisions, yielding a 43-7 career mark. He pushed his career strikeout total to 425 in 393.2 innings, on a night in which he bested Tom Price’s ND records for wins in a season (14-5 in ’94) and career innings (390). He registered his 10th straight complete game and 12th of the season, breaking a 91-year-old ND record (Billy Ryan had 11 in 1910).
The Irish lineup was back at full strength thanks to the return of sophomore leftfielder and No. 5 hitter Kris Billmaier (who missed the previous seven games with a back injury) and freshman second baseman Steve Sollmann, who returned to his usual No. 2 spot in the batting order after missing the last two games with a fractured hand. Their impact went beyond a combined 1-for-6 night with two walks, as the Irish offense reawakened for a 15-hit attack after batting just .252 in the BIG EAST Tournament.
Junior centerfielder Steve Stanley scored three times and plated a fourth Irish run while batting 5-for-5?surprisingly the first five-hit game of his Irish career.
Notre Dame broke open a 1-1 game with its highest-scoring inning of the season, racking up nine runs in the fourth thanks to six hits and three walks. Senior shortstop Alec Porzel and sophomore rightfielder Brian Stavisky capped the big inning with their eighth and seventh home runs, respectively, of the season – Porzel’s coming with two runners on base for a 7-1 cushion.
Stavisky’s one-out double to the right-center gap sparked ND’s nine-run 4th, with righthandeed Quintin Oldenburg (9-4) then loading the bases with four-pitch walks to Billmaier and Paul O’Toole. Junior third baseman Andrew Bushey had the green light on the next pitch and sent an RBI single into center field before junior DH Matt Bok plated a pair of runs with his own single to center.
Joe Thaman’s sacrifice fly brought home ND’s fourth run of the inning and Stanley followed with a run-producing groundrule double deep in the right-center gap. Sollmann then drew a full-count walk to end Oldenburg’s night and Porzel greeted reliever Rob Erickson by launching a 3-1 pitch over the leffield fence for his team-leading eighth home run of the season and 37th of his career. Stavisky fell behind in the count (1-2) but still managed to drive a pitch to the opposite field and over the fence in left-center for his seventh home run of the season.
GAME NOTES – ND is now 4-0 in NCAA tournament openers under head coach Paul Mainieri (4-8 in pre-Mainieri era)… the 12 runs are the most for ND in its last 11 NCAA tournament games?dating back to the 12-1 win over Virginia in 1996… ND is 21-3 this season vs. teams that beat the Irish in 2000.
HEILMAN NOTES – Gillitzer’s HR was just the third allowed by Heilman this season and the 13th vs. Heilman in his career… Heilman’s 12 complete games this season include five 9-inning outings and he has pitched one inning shy of the pre-determined maximum (114 of 115) all season… Heilman’s 26 career complete games are just two shy of Norwood Gibson’s ND record 28 from 1896-1900… Heilman is the 17th all-time ND student-athlete to be a four-year All-American in the same sport and just the 5th to do so in a team-oriented sport (the others include women’s soccer’s Holly Manthei, Jen Grubb and Anne Makinen and Kevin O’Shea from men’s basketball).
TEAM NOTES – ND’s 47 wins are third in Irish history (48 in ’89, ’92)… ND extended its 1st-inning scoring edge to 55-8 – including 52-3 in the last 45 games and 32-2 overall at Eck Stadium – while pushing its 4th-inning advantage to 61-20… ND has 12 HRs in the last 10 games (only 25 in the first 49 games)… the Irish have yet to make an error in four postseason games.
PLAYER NOTES – Stanley – who owns seven career 4-hit games – posted his 30th multi-hit game of 2001 and became the 22nd ND player to collect five hits in a game (twice by Tom Sheehan, in ’43 and ’44, twice by Randall Brooks in ’97)… aside from Porzel’s ND record 6-for-6 game vs. Pittsburgh last season, Stanley is the first ND player with a 5-hit game since Brant Ust and Dan Leatherman in ’98… Stavisky has two HRs in his last three games after hitting one in the previous 20… all eight of Porzel’s HRs have come in the last 27 games (5 in the last 13)… Porzel’s 37 career HRs tie him with Frank Jacobs (’89-’91) and Mike Amrhein (’94-’97) for 3rd in ND history… Stavisky’s 3-for-4 day improved his team-best batting avg. in games started by Heilman (.455, 20-for-44) and his team-best avg. at Eck Stadium (.476, 40-for-84)… Stanley’s 93 hits this season are tied with Scott Sollmann (’95) for 3rd in ND history behind Eric Danapilis (96 in ’93) and Dan Peltier (115 in ’89)… Stanley has tied Peltier for the most career hits by an ND junior (257, 6th all-time, with Porzel 4th at 270)… Porzel (214) is just seven behind Eric Danapilis (’93) on the ND career RBI list… Porzel (235) tied Mike Coss for 3rd on the ND career games played list, one behind Craig Counsell (’92), three back of J.J. Brock (’98)… Stanley (174) tied Ust for 8th in ND career runs (Porzel is 7th at 179)… ND’s three doubles give the Irish a team-record 134 for the season… Stanley’s 71 runs this season rank 7th in the ND record book.
WISCONSIN MILWAUKEE (39-16) 0-1-0 0-0-0 0-3-0 ? 4 7 1
#8 NOTRE DAME (47-11-1) 1-0-0 9-0-0 0-2-X ? 12 15 0
Aaron Heilman (W, 15-0) and Paul O’Toole.
Quinton Oldenburg (L, 9-4), Rob Erickson (4), Ben Casper (7), Kyle Raeder (8), Matt Freisleben (8) and John VandenBerg.
Home Runs: Alec Porzel, ND (2 on in 4th, 8th of season), Brian Stavisky, ND (solo in 4th, 7th of season), Scott Gillitzer, UWM (2 on in 8th, 10th of season).
Doubles: Brian Stavisky (ND), Steve Stanley (ND), Joe Thaman (ND).