The Notre Dame baseball team’s Achilles' heel was on full display once again as host Louisville (32-22, 16-14 ACC) battered Irish pitching Friday to the tune of five home runs and 14 runs total in a 14-6 blowout to sweep the three-game ACC series.
And now the Irish — with their regular season complete — wait.
The top 12 teams of the ACC’s 14 make next week’s ACC Tournament field in Charlotte, N.C. After Boston College fell 11-6 Friday to fourth-ranked Clemson in game two of their three-game set, that left only Notre Dame (27-25, 9-21 ACC) and Pitt (25-26, 9-20) in contention for the 12th and final tournament slot.
The ACC Tournament starts Tuesday with pool play, and concludes Sunday, May 26, with the league championship game.
The Irish owned tiebreakers over both Boston College and Pitt, because of head-to-head results during the regular season. The Panthers stayed alive Friday night with a 5-3 win at Miami. They play the Hurricanes in game 3 of that series Saturday at 1 p.m. EDT.
Pitt had to win both Friday and now Saturday to overtake the Irish for the tourney’s 12th seed.
Notre Dame this season went 7-2 against the three teams it started the week battling for playoff inclusion (Pitt, BC and Miami), and finished 2-19 against the rest of its ACC schedule. The last time the Irish were excluded from the field was 2016, when it was a 10-team format. The 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday Louisville junior outfielder Eddie King Jr. continued to destroy Notre Dame pitching. He hit two more home runs Friday, driving in three, to finish 6-of-10 in the series with five homers, eight RBIs and five runs scored.
Rory Fox (2-3) took the loss on the mound for Notre Dame, being chased after 2 ⅔ innings.
Jack Penney and Simon Baumgardt had two hits each for the Irish. Estevan Moreno hit a solo home run for ND, which fell into an 8-0 hole before getting on the board in the top of the sixth inning.
LOUISVILLE 14, NOTRE DAME 6: Box Score
And now the Irish — with their regular season complete — wait.
The top 12 teams of the ACC’s 14 make next week’s ACC Tournament field in Charlotte, N.C. After Boston College fell 11-6 Friday to fourth-ranked Clemson in game two of their three-game set, that left only Notre Dame (27-25, 9-21 ACC) and Pitt (25-26, 9-20) in contention for the 12th and final tournament slot.
The ACC Tournament starts Tuesday with pool play, and concludes Sunday, May 26, with the league championship game.
The Irish owned tiebreakers over both Boston College and Pitt, because of head-to-head results during the regular season. The Panthers stayed alive Friday night with a 5-3 win at Miami. They play the Hurricanes in game 3 of that series Saturday at 1 p.m. EDT.
Pitt had to win both Friday and now Saturday to overtake the Irish for the tourney’s 12th seed.
Notre Dame this season went 7-2 against the three teams it started the week battling for playoff inclusion (Pitt, BC and Miami), and finished 2-19 against the rest of its ACC schedule. The last time the Irish were excluded from the field was 2016, when it was a 10-team format. The 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday Louisville junior outfielder Eddie King Jr. continued to destroy Notre Dame pitching. He hit two more home runs Friday, driving in three, to finish 6-of-10 in the series with five homers, eight RBIs and five runs scored.
Rory Fox (2-3) took the loss on the mound for Notre Dame, being chased after 2 ⅔ innings.
Jack Penney and Simon Baumgardt had two hits each for the Irish. Estevan Moreno hit a solo home run for ND, which fell into an 8-0 hole before getting on the board in the top of the sixth inning.
LOUISVILLE 14, NOTRE DAME 6: Box Score
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