Friday was a glorious but bittersweet day for me, and most likely also for many other long-time college baseball fans. Friday was the start of another sure-to-be enthralling college baseball season. But it was also the start of the final season of college baseball which will finish at the ol’ jewel of a stadium up on the hill in South Omaha – Rosenblatt Stadium, home of the College World Series since 1950. The Series will move to a new home next year in north downtown Omaha. 

 For the 39^th ranked Irish to finish their season on the sport’s biggest stage for the first time since 2002 and second time in the program’s history, they’ll need to find a mix of solid midweek pitching (to win some respectable non-conference games where they’ve slipped up the past few years under fourth-year coach Dave Schrage) and timely hitting as always. Prior to three years ago, Notre Dame had made the NCAA regionals eight consecutive years and posted 16 consecutive 40-win seasons. The Irish coach of most of those winning teams – Paul Mainieri. Mainieri just won the national title last season with perennial powerhouse LSU.

 Under Schrage, it’s been three NCAA misses for the Irish Nine, including a narrow miss last year after posting a solid final RPI in the low 40s but just not enough to overcome a fifth place finish in the Big East regular-season. The Irish certainly have the firepower and hunger to get back to the big stage. Posting two of the top recruiting classes in the country in the past four years should finally start to pay off. And the Irish have reassessed their overall outlook on goal-setting and on looking ahead after last year’s disappointing NCAA snub. This year, the team says, it’s more of a game-to-game, day-at-a-time approach.

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Despite a slow start in a conference play and a disappointing 22-14 record overall – 8-7 Big East – the Irish have a lot to play for in this second half of the season. Over the weekend, the Irish took the home series 2-1 against first-place and nationally ranked West Virginia. It would have been easy for Notre Dame to fold and get swept by the Mountaineers after a 19-3 drubbing Friday at Eck Stadium, but the team stuck together, got some timely hitting in Saturday’s first game and some stellar pitching from junior Eric Maust in the second game of the doubleheader. Sunday’s game three of the series was moved to Saturday afternoon because of impending inclement weather.

With the series win against the Mountaineers, the Irish should have some renewed confidence as they hit the home stretch of the conference season. Notre Dame currently sits in fifth place in the Big East standings but still plays three of the four teams ahead of it (the other is West Virginia), South Florida (24-14, 12-3), Louisville (27-10, 11-4), and St. John’s (20-14, 9-6). There’s really a lot of baseball left to be played, and the Irish, in a way, control their own Big East tournament seeding destiny. Hopefully the West Virginia series can serve as a turning point in this up-and-down season, though the series itself shows Notre Dame’s shoddy inconsistency. The Irish went from doing nothing right in a 19-3 loss to the conference leaders to outplaying the Mountaineers in back-to-back games Saturday.

West Virginia came into the series batting an impressive .363 and 47 home runs as a team. Both of those statistics are still good enough, far and away, for best in the conference. The team batting average is third best in the nation. The Mountaineers lead the conference in batting average by .13 points. In Friday’s opener, Notre Dame sophomore Cole Johnson (4-1), who at times this season has looked unhittable, got roughed up by the powerful West Virginia offense. The righty gave up 11 runs on ten hits in five innings, suffering his first loss of the season. Once Johnson left, the pitching and defense didn’t get much better. The Irish defense had two costly errors, and freshman Dustin Ispas surrendered six runs, two earned. Sam Elam followed, giving up two earned runs. On a day when nothing seemed to go right, the Irish needed a quick turnaround. Saturday would be much different.

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I apologize for the lack of updates, as I’ve been out of town recently. Since I last posted, Irish baseball has posted a record of 6-5, dropping four of six conference games. The Irish sit at 16-10 overall and 2-4 in Big East play. After a midweek win against MAC foe Toledo Wednesday night at Eck Stadium, Notre Dame returns to conference play at home this weekend when it hosts Villanova (4-14, 1-5). The Irish need a series sweep this weekend to make a jump in the Big East standings as they near the midpoint  the regular season. The Irish will need to fix some things, both in the field and on the mound, the next few weekends when they face Villanova and Cincinnati before taking on Big East leader West Virginia later in April.

In the Friday game of the Pittsburgh series, the Irish got their sole win of the series, a rare win at Pitt – their first there since May 2005. Sophomore pitcher Cole Johnson, who has really pitched well his past few starts, improved to 3-0 on the season after pitching a complete game against the Panthers.

The Irish escaped a scare in the bottom of the seventh inning. While leading 5-2, Johnson pitched out of a jam after surrendering two unearned runs from two Irish infield errors. Golden Tate, David Mills, Jeremy Barnes, and Casey Martin each notched two hits to pace the Irish offense. Pitt was hot heading into the series, so it was a big win for the Irish.

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Notre Dame baseball (10-5) plays its first home game today, St. Patrick’s Day, at 5 p.m. against Ball State. Freshman lefty Dustin Ispas will start for the Irish, who have won six out of their past seven games and seven out of their past nine.

Over the weekend, Notre Dame finished its own tournament, the Irish Baseball Classic, with a 3-1 record, losing Thursday against Illinois State but winning the remaining games against Trinity (Texas) and two against Texas Pan-American. Illinois State won the tournament, sweeping the field 4-0.

Against Illinois State, the Irish bats were relatively quiet – with runners in scoring position – as the Irish fell 3-2. Notre Dame stranded eight base runners in the game. Starter Cole Johnson did not factor in the decision. He pitched seven innings and yielded two earned runs. Todd Miller, who pitched two innings of relief and gave up the winning run to the Redbirds, took the loss. No Irish batter managed more than one hit. A.J. Pollock, Jeremy Barnes, Cameron McConnell, and Greg Sherry collected one apiece. Friday games in San Antonio were rained out.

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Texas has been kind to Irish baseball this spring break, as the Irish improved to 4-1 in the state over the past week. Notre Dame swept a two-game set with Grambling State in San Antonio Tuesday and Wednesday. With the victories, the Irish improved to 7-4 in non-conference play, having won four out of their past five games.

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Notre Dame improved to 5-4 overall after a 2-1 finish in the Rice Classic in Houston over the weekend. The Irish picked up a solid win Friday night, beating Oral Roberts in a pitcher's duel 2-1. In a rotation shakeup, sophomore Cole Johnson started for the Irish and pitched a gem. Johnson pitched seven strong innings - allowing just two hits and striking out a career high seven. Notre Dame opened the scoring in the bottom of the third inning when sophomore catcher Cameron McConnell led off with a walk. Sophomore outfielder Golden Tate then laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance McConnell to second base. Last year's Cape Cod League MVP A.J. Pollock followed with a double down the left field line. Pollock finished 2-4 for the game.

The bats were quiet the rest of the way for both teams until Oral Roberts tied the game in the top of the eighth inning with a leadoff home run off Notre Dame reliever sophomore Todd Miller. Miller got out of the inning, though, and picked up the win after the Irish answered with a run in the bottom of the inning with a string of singles. Senior Jeremy Barnes knocked in the winning run. Barnes finished 2-4 on the day. Junior Steven Mazur picked up the save.

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