April 15, 2003
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Eastern Michigan baseball team used a pair of early home runs and a career-best outing from sophomore lefthander Matt Onderlinde to end #13 Notre Dame’s win streak one shy of matching the team record, in a 5-3 game Tuesday night at Eck Stadium.
Notre Dame (26-7) saw its 17-game winning streak come to an end, with the Irish leaving the bases loaded in the sixth and ninth innings. Sophomore righthander Tyler Jones (2-1) suffered the loss after allowing four run on five hits and no walks over four innings, with a pair of strikeouts.
Onderlinde (1-1) – whose longest outing prior to Tuesday was just three innings – kept the Irish away from their customary big innings, with the hosts plating single runs in the fourth, sixth and ninth innings. The lefthander’s 120-pitch outing included three runs (two earned) on four hits and four walks, with four strikeouts. Freshman righthander Trevor Carpenter then worked into and out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth for his first save of the season.
Junior rightfielder and preseason All-American Ryan Goleski opened the scoring in the top of the first, when he followed Derrick Petersen’s single with a 1-2 blast that caught the wind and carried over the fence in left-center field for his ninth home run of the season. Junior centerfielder then hit a similar shot on a 1-2 count in the second, with his leadoff stroke riding the swirling wind over the fence in right-center (his fifth homer of 2003).
The early home runs proved to be the difference, with the Eagles adding key insurance runs in the fourth and fifth. Steve Sollmann’s leadoff triple and Brennan Grogan single down the leftfield line put the Irish on the board in the fourth but Onderlinde then induced a flyout and double-play groundball to get out of the inning.
The Irish rallied with two outs in the sixth, sparked by Sollmann’s single, a fielding error and a full-count walk by Matt Edwards. Onderlinde walked Kris Billmaier on five pitches, forcing home a run, but then forced a timely popup to the end the threat.
Notre Dame’s ninth-inning rally included Billmaier’s leadoff walk (ending Onderlinde’s night), a one-out single from Javi Sanchez and Matt Macri’s RBI single to left field. A wild pitch moved the runners to second and third and pinch-hitter Steve Andres walked on four pitches – but Carpenter delivered a strikeout and groundout back to the mound to end the game.
Sollmann and Grogan (both 2-for-4) were the only players in the game with multiple hits while the Irish continued their strong defensive play with another error-free game.
The game also ended Notre Dame’s home winning streak at 19 games and represented the first Irish loss to a non-conference opponent at Eck Stadium since the 2001 season (ending another streak of 21 games).
Eastern Michigan 2-1-0 1-1-0 0-0-0 – 5 7 2
#13 Notre Dame 0-0-0 1-0-1 0-0-1 – 3 6 0
Matt Onderlinde (W, 1-1), Trevor Carpenter (9; SV, 1) and Brad Hrovat.
Tyler Jones (L, 2-1), Peter Ogilvie (5), Ryan Doherty (7), Matt Laird (9) and Javi Sanchez.
Home Runs: Ryan Goleski, EMU (1 on in 1st; 9th of season); Ryan Arnett, EMU (solo in 2nd, 5th of season).
Triple: Steve Sollmann (ND), Ryan Ford (EMU).