Home runs doom Notre Dame baseball in regular season finale series loss to Miami
It was the series of the long ball. Notre Dame fell victim to it Saturday.
The Fighting Irish went into the regular season finale with a chance to beat No. 9 Miami in a three-game series and earn the top spot in the ACC’s Atlantic Division. They didn’t leave Coral Gables, Fla., with either accomplishment.
The Hurricanes hounded Irish starting pitcher Jack Findlay early. The freshman gave up a pair of two-run home runs in the first inning in addition to an RBI single. He was charged with six earned runs in 2/3 of an inning. Notre Dame trailed 7-0 after the first and was never able to climb all the way back in an eventual 16-7 loss. A five-run seventh put the game away for good. Miami (39-16, 20-10 ACC) blasted six home runs on the day.
Notre Dame finished the regular season with 33-13 overall mark and a 16-11 record in conference play. Louisville beat Virginia on Saturday, so the Cardinals (38-16-1, 18-11-1) finished with the best record in the Atlantic. The Cards swept the Irish in March, which went a long way in determining the divisional race.
The loss likely put Notre Dame’s hopes of earning a top-eight national seed in the NCAA Tournament to bed. The Irish will hope to still be named a top-16 seed with the right to host a Regional in South Bend the first weekend in June.
They’ve got to hope for some other things though, too.
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Notre Dame needs ace John Michael Bertrand to return to form in the postseason. He has given up 12 earned runs in the last three games after allowing 11 in his first 10 starts. Notre Dame also needs a third starter outside of Bertrand and fellow graduate senior Austin Temple to emerge. It’s probably a little too late for that. Findlay showed that Saturday.
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The Irish don’t have a deep enough bullpen to get through a game in which the starter doesn’t make it out of the first inning. It’s been a trend — a bad one for head coach Link Jarrett. He turned to seven different relievers Saturday. Four of them allowed at least two earned runs.
Making matters worse, starting third baseman Jack Brannigan was one of those “bullpen” guys. He came right off the bag at third to the mound in the seventh inning with Notre Dame trailing 13-5. The only two pitches he threw were wild, and Miami brought two more runs home. Brannigan appeared to injure his throwing arm on the second wild pitch. He left the game emotionally with his hat pulled low over his brows and a concerned look on his face.
Notre Dame needs Brannigan for the postseason. He’s one of the best third basemen in the country as a fielder, and he has been swinging a decent bat of late. He had a two-run homer in Notre Dame’s 5-0 victory Friday and a three-run homer Saturday, as inconsequential as it may have been.
The Irish went down to Florida with just a couple questions in mind: Could they win the series and set the stage for a stellar postseason run? They leave the Sunshine State with questions they don’t want to be facing this time of year: What’s wrong with the ace pitcher? Who would start the third game of a Regional? Is Brannigan OK?
They’ll all be answered, for better or worse, in the next two weeks.
