Feb. 23, 2007
ND-UNCW BOXSCORE
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MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – The Notre Dame baseball team jumped out to a 3-0 lead on UNC Wilmington in Friday’s opening-day action at the Baseball at the Beach tournament – but three Irish errors helped the Seahawks score six unearned runs in the decisive bottom of the sixth, en route to a 9-4 win for Wilmington. Notre Dame (1-3) outhit UNCW (4-5) by an 11-8 margin but a two-out error opened the door for the Seahawks comeback.
Senior DH Mike Dury batted 3-for-5 – matching his career-high for hits in a game – with 3 RBI, a triple and a double. The Irish cleanup hitter was the only Notre Dame batter in the 3rd-7th spots to register a hit in the game, with leadoff batter Brett Lilley going 2-for-4 while senior centerfielder Danny Dressman was 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored from the 2-hole. Freshman rightfielder Michael Wright added a 2-for-4 game from the bottom of the lineup.
Junior lefthander Wade Korpi (1-1) was the hard-luck loser, after taking a no-hitter and 3-0 lead into the fourth inning. UNCW was able to push across a run in the innning but Korpi started the fifth with a pair of outs – only to see the Seahawks stage a two-out rally that included three hits, two walks and three errors (two on hit balls and another on a throw).
Korpi ultimately was tagged for five runs (only one of them earned) on three hits and an uncharacteristic high walk total (5) while striking out one of his 26 batters faced in the 5.2 innings.
Notre Dame opened the game with a run, marking the first time there has been a first-inning run (by either team) in an Irish game this season. Dressman dropped a 1-2 pitch into shallow center field and advanced on a groundball (that was misplayed by the third baseman) before scoring when the switch-hitting Dury pulled a 1-1 pitch through the right side.
The Irish stretched to a 3-0 cushion with a pair of runs in the third. Wright beat out a leadoff bunt and stole second before taking third on Lilley’s 25th career sacrifice bunt. Freshman righthander Ryan Doolittle then plunked Dressman with a 1-2 pitch and Wright scored on a rightside groundball off the bat of Jeremy Barnes. Dury capped the sequence by delivering with two outs, driving a 2-2 pitch into the right-center gap for his first career triple and the 3-0 lead.
Notre Dame tacked on a run in the ninth, after Dressman’s two-out single to center, a full-count walk by Barnes and Dury’s first-pitch double down the rightfield line.
The game marked the second time in the young season that Notre Dame’s losing margin has come via unearned runs. The Irish pitchers have allowed just 15 earned runs but nine errors have helped bring home 10 other runs that have been unearned.
Notre Dame (1-3) 1-0-2 0-0-0 0-0-1 – 4 11 4
UNC Wilmington (4-5) 0-0-0 1-0-6 2-0-X – 9 8 3
Wade Korpi (L, 1-1), Eric Maust (6), Jess Stewart (8) and Matt Weglarz.
Ryan Doolittle, Allen Flood (6; W, 2-0) and Jonathan Batts.
Triple: Mike Dury (ND)
Doubles: Dury (ND), Rhett Miller (UNCW), Justin Barefoot (UNCW)