Notre Dame baseball loses shot at regular season ACC title with loss to Miami
Notre Dame will not defend its regular season ACC championship. The Fighting Irish lost 6-4 in their series-opening game at Miami on Thursday. The defeat ensured it is impossible for Notre Dame to finish with the best winning percentage in the conference.
The No. 9 Hurricanes (38-15, 19-9 ACC) and the No. 3 Virginia Tech Hokies (38-11, 17-9) will continue to battle for the championship throughout the weekend. All is not lost for No. 14 Notre Dame (32-12, 15-10), though. The Irish can potentially spoil the Hurricanes’ title hopes and help themselves out in terms of postseason seeding in the process.
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If Notre Dame comes back to beat Miami in the final two games of the series, the Irish would vastly improve their standing in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament selection committee. The bracket is coming out May 30. A series victory would be a fine last impression of sorts.
Victory was still within reach Thursday, too.
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Notre Dame starting pitcher John Michael Bertrand and Miami starting pitcher Carson Palmquist went through each opposing batting order in perfect fashion the first time through. Nine up, nine down. Then they let it get to them a bit in the fourth. Notre Dame outfielder Ryan Cole hit his eighth home run of the season to lead off the fourth. The Canes responded with a solo homer of their own off Bertrand in the home half of the inning to tie the score, 1-1.
Palmquist stranded two Irish base runners in the fifth. Bertrand ran into some trouble in the fifth, too, but he couldn’t get out of it. Freshman Gaby Gutierrez bashed a two-run home run to give Miami a 4-1 lead. When Bertrand (7-2, 2.62 ERA) finished his outing after 6 1/3 innings — and giving up four or more earned runs for the second time in three starts after not allowing that many once in his first 10 starts — Gutierrez brought home two more runs with his second blast of the game off Notre Dame freshman Radek Birkholz.
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Just like that, Miami led 6-1 in the bottom of the seventh.
Palmquist (9-3, 2.64) was good, and 6-4 righty Alex McFarlane was better. He struck out the side in relief in the sixth. He had five strikeouts in two innings pitched. Miami closer Andrew Walters, also a 6-4 righty who is arguably the best closer in the nation, allowed things to get interesting in the ninth. Cole sent a three-run shot to left for his second homer of the night and ninth of the season. A leadoff infield single by Jack Brannigan and a two-out walk by Spencer Myers set Cole up.
Notre Dame only had four hits all night, and two of them were infield singles, entering the ninth. That’s why the Irish trailed by five — a deficit too large to overcome even with Cole swinging a hot bat. Irish batters struck out 15 times. Notre Dame can’t go down quietly inning after inning until it’s too little, too late in the final two games of the series if the Irish are to scrape up some wins. Irish pitchers can’t be susceptible to giving up the long ball, either. All six of Miami’s runs came on homers.
Game two of the series gets going at 7 p.m. ET (ACC Network) Friday. Righty Austin Temple (3-1, 3.33 ERA) gets the ball for Notre Dame.
