Notre Dame notches NCAA Tournament regional final spot with 6-4 win over Georgia Southern

The message is the same regardless of whether you’re speaking to Notre Dame head coach Link Jarrett or any of his players: You are going to have to play good baseball to advance in the NCAA Tournament, whether that’s in South Bend, Ind., Statesboro, Ga., or anywhere else in America.

“At this point, we can’t really do anything about it,” third baseman Jack Brannigan said postgame when asked if Notre Dame had a chip on its shoulder after being denied the opportunity to host a regional. “We’re just going to come out here and play our game.”

And boy, has Notre Dame done just that.

On Saturday night, the Irish topped No. 16 overall seed Georgia Southern 6-4 in Game 4 of the Statesboro Regional. They moved to 2-0 in the tournament and earned a spot in the regional final on Sunday night.

After a three-hour weather delay held up the game, the contest finally got underway just after 8 p.m. Austin Temple got the nod for Notre Dame, lasting 5.2 innings and 104 pitches and allowing four hits, four runs (all earned) and four walks. The Florida native and graduate student struck out eight Eagles. It was by no means a perfect performance, but it was enough to stave off the entry of an Irish bullpen that had to throw eight innings on Friday as a result of another weather delay.

“It was critical for us today to try to shorten the back end of the game,” Jarrett said. “He got us a couple of innings there that were very important to the ultimate outcome.”

Freshman Jack Findlay pitched the inning of the night for Notre Dame, coming in with runners at the corners and zero outs in the seventh inning. He struck out two batters and notched a groundout to keep what was a 6-4 Notre Dame advantage. Findlay closed it out with a 1-2-3 inning in the ninth.

“That’s as good as his fastball has been,” Jarrett said. “He’s pitched well for us. You can look at the numbers, and he’s been effective. But for a freshman to go in that situation, it’s what we needed to do, and he was comfortable with it. He took that thing and went. I’m just very proud of his poise.”

Speaking of poise, Notre Dame had to maintain it in the face of a record-breaking crowd of 3,533 at J.I. Clements Stadium. They were loud, and they let the Irish know they were the visitors. Every time the volume rose, however, a veteran Irish team responded at the plate.

All of Notre Dame’s runs on Saturday came via home run or hit batsmen.

After Georgia Southern’s designated hitter Noah Ledford hit a mammoth solo home run in the third inning, Irish designated hitter Jack Zyska and Brannigan launched solo blasts of their own. Shortstop Zack Prajzner added a two-run shot in the sixth inning to tie the game at four runs each.

Zyska is now tied for the team lead with 11 home runs this season, while Saturday’s knocks were Brannigan’s 10th and Prazjner’s sixth of the year.

The final two runs of Notre Dame’s day came in a surprising manner. The Irish loaded the bases in the seventh inning, and Eagles pitcher Jaylen Paden hit back-to-back Notre Dame batters with pitches. The Irish left the seventh inning with a 6-4 lead and never looked back thanks to the aforementioned excellence on the mound from Findlay.

Next up, the Irish will face the winner of Sunday afternoon’s game between Georgia Southern and Texas Tech in the Statesboro Regional Final. The game will begin at 7 p.m. ET.