Three takeaways from Notre Dame baseball win at Elon

Ah, midweek college baseball.

For the first time this season, Notre Dame played a game on a day other than the three traditional weekend days. Different day, very familiar result for the Fighting Irish. They beat Elon 11-1 on the road to improve to 9-1 this season ahead of this weekend’s opening ACC series at North Carolina State.

The Nos. 7 and 8 hitters got the job done for the Irish. Senior right fielder Brooks Coetzee III went 2 for 3 with five runs driven in, and senior shortstop Zack Prajzner went 3 for 5 with two RBI and three runs scored. Coatzee scored his only run in the third on a three-run homer. Notre Dame plated eight runs in the third to put the game away early.

Here are three takeaways from the Irish’s latest victory.

BOX SCORE

Spencer Myers taken out of lineup

Graduate student Spencer Myers’ struggles finally caught up with him.

Myers has started 112 of 114 games the last three seasons. He has started 135 of 153 in his career. Tuesday, he stayed in the dugout until the seventh inning when he appeared as a pinch hitter. A career .297 hitter going into the season, Myers started Notre Dame’s first eight games as the leadoff hitter. He was dropped to the nine-hole in Sunday’s game against Minnesota. He was dropped from the entire batting order Tuesday.

Why? The 5-11, 170-pound outfielder/designated hitter hasn’t been anything like the player he was in his first four years at Notre Dame in the early going this season. After going 0 for 1 in his pinch-hitting performance Tuesday, Myers is now batting .125 (4 for-32) this season.

It is a fickle game head coach Link Jarrett is forced to play. He’s like to let his proven, veteran presence hit through the slump. But right now, it’s such a bad one that leaving him in the lineup is a detriment to the team. That’s why once the game was in hand (Notre Dame led 10-1 at the time of Myers’ insertion into the game) Jarrett gave Myers a chance at a couple at-bats. He walked and flied out.

It’s just not working for Myers right now.

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Underclassmen grace the top of the order

Jarrett wasn’t afraid to replace experience with youth at the top of the batting order. Sophomore TJ Williams, who had played 14 games in his career going into Tuesday night, led off. Freshman Jack Penney hit behind him in the two-hole. That duo combined to go 3 for 9 with an RBI and two runs scored.

Williams started the game with a hit by pitch. His 2-for-3 day brought his season-long average to a sizzling .435. He got the nod to start in center field. Jarrett might have found a permanent place for him. Playing in his seventh game of the season in his first year of collegiate baseball, Penney started at second base. Graduate student Jared Miller got the day off.

✅ Midweek win

Check out all the highlights from the 11-3 win over Elon!#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/NFZiy2R47w

— Notre Dame Baseball (@NDBaseball) March 9, 2022

Six pitchers gain valuable experience

As should be customary for a team blowing its opposition out in a midweek matchup, Notre Dame went deep into the bullpen Tuesday. Freshman Jack Findlay, a 6-foot-3 lefty from New Jersey, got the start on the mound. Findlay struck out three, walked none and allowed just one hit in his college debut. He needed 46 pitches to get through three innings.

None of the five pitchers Jarrett called on in the subsequent six innings threw more than two innings. Freshman Caden Aoki made his second appearance of the season and first since throwing 3 1/3 innings in the third game of opening weekend. Aoki struggled with command, walking the first batter he faced in the fourth inning and advancing him on a wild pitch. The runner tagged from second to third on a fly out then scored on another wild pitch. Aoki got out of the frame with consecutive groundouts.

Graduate student Matt Lazzaro, a transfer from Houston, made his Notre Dame debut. He pitched a one-two-three sixth but wasn’t helped out by Myers at the start of the seventh. Myers made a miscue in his first inning of the game as a fielder. Myers’ error allowed the leadoff man to reach second. Lazzaro got the next two hitters to fly out and was replaced by freshman righty Radek Birkholz, who immediately allowed a double and a single. Two Elon runs scored. Birkholz issued a walk before finally getting out of the inning with a strikeout swinging.

Sophomore Jackson Dennies and freshman Roman Kimball each got an inning to finish things off. Those two combined for five strikeouts after the previous four pitchers had just seven through seven innings. Kimball struck out the side in the ninth, a much-needed easy inning after a very shaky college debut. He gave up two runs without recording an out in the Irish’s only loss of the season, a 5-4 defeat against Delaware on Feb. 19.