Top-Ranked Notre Dame Baseball Clinches BIG EAST Title With Sweep Of UConn, 6-1 and 13-12

May 5, 2001

Box Score

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame’s Aaron Heilman joined an exclusive group of Division I baseball players by registering his 40th career win and 400th strikeout in the 6-1 opener while the Irish offense rallied for three runs in the ninth inning of the 13-12 nightcap, as the top-ranked Notre Dame baseball team clinched the BIG EAST Conference regular-season title with a sweep of visiting Connecticut in Saturday afternoon action at Eck Stadium.

Notre Dame (43-7-1, 20-2 BIG EAST) set the team record for most games over .500 (+36) while extending its BIG EAST winning streak to 18 games-well ahead of the conference’s previous record for single-season winning streak (11 by the potent 1989 Seton Hall squad).

Heilman-who improved to 12-0 for the season and 22-1 in his last 23 decisions-joins current South Carolina senior Kip Bouknight (43-10, 431 Ks) and all-time NCAA strikeout leader John Powell of Auburn (43-20, 602 Ks, from 1990-94) as the only Division I players currently known to have reached 40 career victories and 400 strikeouts-since limits were placed on the number of games that teams can play per season (beginning in 1990). Nine others are known to be members of the 40-400 club-based on research coordinated by the BIG EAST office-with that group including four pitchers from the 1970s and five who played primarily in the 1980s (prior to the current 56-game schedule limits, see complete list at end of story).

Heilman entered the day needing 10 strikeouts to reach the 400-K milestone in the final regular-season home game of his storied career. An early stretch of five straight Ks gave the Irish ace a chance to reach the milestone in the seven-inning opener but he still needed two Ks in the final inning. Joe Kagerer went down swinging at a 2-2 pitch for the second out and-following a single and walk-Heilman blew a 1-2 pitch by Mike James to complete the historic day with the 10 Ks, plus three walks and three hits allowed.

The wild second game-which saw ND’s Danny Tamayo touched for eight runs after entering with a 1.42 season ERA-included four leads by the Irish and three ties before Connecticut (24-25, 12-13) surged to an 11-9 lead with four runs in the sixth. The Huskies still held a 12-10 edge heading into the bottom of the ninth-with Andrew Bushey drawing a leadoff walk on four pitches and Ken Meyer reaching when reserve third baseman Mike Mocerino misplayed his slow grounder.

Junior centerfielder Steve Stanley then tied the game two batters later, taking advantage of his counterpart Mike Scott playing too shallow by driving a 1-1 pitch from righthander Mike James over the head of a backpedaling Scott for the game-tying triple. Freshman second baseman Steve Sollmann ended the game by lifting a 1-0 pitch to center field for the sacrifice fly.

Irish senior shortstop Alec Porzel continued his recent surge, with his 4-for-6 day including a solo shot in the first inning of the opener, plus four RBI, four runs scored, two walks and a double over the course of the two games.

Porzel’s four RBI give him 203 for his career, moving past Mike Amrhein (202, ’94-’97) and Dan Peltier (202, ’87-’89) into second on the ND career RBI list, behind the 221 totaled by1993 graduate Eric Danapilis.

Sophomore rightfielder Brian Stavisky helped give the Irish a 3-0 lead in the first inning of the nightcap, after depositing a two-run shot over the leftfield fence for his fifth home run of the season (tying Porzel and Sollmann for the team lead).

Stanley batted 4-for-5 in the back-and-forth second game while factoring into seven of the Irish runs, with four RBI and three runs scored.

CONNECTICUT 0-0-0   0-0-0   1   -   1   3   0#1 NOTRE DAME   1-0-3   2-0-0   X   -   6   8   1Pat Sperone (L, 6-5) and Mike James.    Aaron Heilman (W, 12-0) and PaulO'Toole.Home Run: A,ec Porzel, ND (solo in 1st, 5th of season).Triple: Brian Stavisky (ND).    Doubles: Steve Stanley (ND), SteveSollmann (ND), Matt Bok (ND), Peter Soteropoulos (UC).
CONNECTICUT (24-25, 12-13 BIG EAST) 0-0-3   3-1-4   0-1-0   -   12  19  4#1 NOTRE DAME (43-7-1, 20-2 BIG EAST)   3-0-3   1-2-0   1-0-3   -   13  13  4Chris DeBrisco, Chris James (L, 4-1) and Mike Leonard   Danny Tamayo,Matt Buchmeier (6), Mike Naumann (7), Matt Laird (W, 4-1) and PaulO'Toole.Home Run: Brian Stavisky, ND (1 on in 1st, 5th of season).   Triples:Steve Stanley (ND), Cy Hess (UC).Doubles: Alec Porzel (ND), Mike Scott 2 (UC), Dan Trubia (UC), BrianTisbert (UC).

DIVISION I BASEBALL PLAYERS WITH 40 CAREER WINS AND 4000 STRIKEOUTS

Current players who are close to the 40-400 club