March 27, 2010
Game 1: Box Score | Box Score 
Game 2: Box Score | Box Score
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – Jody Valdivia recorded her first career no-hitter and Sadie Pitzenberger set a school record by extending her hitting streak to 23 games Saturday at Ivy Hill Park, allowing Notre Dame to sweep Seton Hall in both teams’ BIG EAST Conference opening doubleheader. Notre Dame won the first game in five innings, 12-0, and took the second in six innings, 11-1.
Valdivia (17-2) faced one over the minimum, walking one while striking out nine in the win. She shelved Notre Dame’s first no-hitter since 2008, becoming the 16th Irish player to throw a no-hitter. It was the first five-inning no-hitter since Heather Booth’s against Rutgers in 2006.
Valdivia also won a 16th straight decision with her 10th shutout of the campaign. The victory was the 11th straight BIG EAST win for the righty, who went 10-0 through the 2009 league slate. Her last conference loss came against Providence on April 26, 2008.
Pitzenberger waited until her third at-bat in the opener to set the record and finished 2-for-3 with a double, two runs and three RBI in game one. She added two hits and two runs in the second game. The effort broke teammate Dani Miller’s 21-game school-record hitting streak set in 2009.
Notre Dame (23-5 overall, 2-0 BIG EAST) finishes the three-game series with Seton Hall (5-13, 0-2) at 11:00 a.m. (ET) on Sunday. The Irish will put their 10-game winning streak on the line, the second double-digit win streak of the season.
-Game 1-
The Irish received doubles from Katie Fleury, Christine Lux and Pitzenberger with Heather Johnson adding her third home run in as many games. Johnson had two RBI and was walked twice.
Brianna Jorgensborg had two RBI on one hit.
Each of the first six batters in the Irish lineup scored at least one run. Half of Notre Dame’s runs came in the fourth, with two in the first and four in the second inning.
Seton Hall used four pitchers. Ashley Forsyth (3-4) started the game and went 2.0 innings. She gave up six runs – four earned – on five hits. Next in line was Danielle Zanzalari, who Notre Dame took for six earned runs on one hit in 1.1 innings.
-Game 2-
The first five batters of the Irish lineup (Pitzenberger, Fleury, Johnson, Lux and Miller) punched in multi-hit efforts with two hits each.
Lux scored three times and had a game-high four RBI.
Kasey O’Connor tripled in the top of the third and stole home to break open a scoreless game.
Lux belted a two-run homer in the fourth to make it a 3-0 contest in favor of Notre Dame.
A five-spot in the fifth started with an Alexa Maldonado home run to right, one of seven hits in the inning.
Notre Dame manufactured three runs on three hits with three Pirate errors to close the door in the sixth.
Nicole Loewenstein had an RBI-double to score Jamie Gates in the fourth for Seton Hall.
The Irish totaled 14 hits, six of which came off of Katie Stilwell (1-6). Stilwell was responsible for four earned runs on six hits in 4.0 innings. Hannah Hill came off the bench and gave up six runs on eight hits in the last 2.0 innings.
Brittany O’Donnell (6-1) kept the Pirates at bay with a two-hit, one run showing in 5.0 frames. She struck out four, and Jackie Bowe added three more strikeouts in a sixth-inning relief effort.
–ND–