Notre Dame on NCAA Tournament bubble entering ACC Baseball Championship
The Fighting Irish knew what they had to do when they woke up Friday morning. Just win one game in a doubleheader vs. Boston College to take the series, and Notre Dame would have likely punched a ticket to the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
The Eagles won 7-2. Then 8-4.
Now the Irish might have some work to do.
D1Baseball.com released a projected field of 64 for NCAA Tournament on Monday. Notre Dame was included, but barely. The Irish were the third-to-last team to make it in ahead of Oklahoma and NC State. Texas State, Elon, UTSA and Cal State Fullerton were the first four teams to miss the cut.
Notre Dame has a Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of No. 47. Here is where the rest of the aforementioned six teams appear in the RPI:
No. 26 NC State (in)
No. 36 Oklahoma (in)
No. 52 Texas State (out)
No. 60 Elon (out)
No. 64 UTSA (out)
No. 65 Cal State Fullerton (out)
UTSA is a Conference USA Tournament bid thief candidate. If UTSA, the No. 2 seed, knocks off Dallas Baptist, the No. 1 seed, the latter would still get in with an RPI currently inside the top 20. Texas State heads into the Sun Belt Tournament as the No. 5 seed. The Bobcats have some work to do to weasel their way back into the field of 64.
The Big West does not have a conference tournament, so Cal State Fullerton finishes its regular season with a three-game set vs. Cal Poly this weekend. Elon is the No. 2 seed in the CAA Tournament behind No. 1 seed North Carolina Wilmington. No. 3 seed Northeastern is projected to make the tournament over Elon as things stand on Monday.
Notre Dame (30-22, 15-15 ACC) is the No. 8 seed in the ACC Baseball Championship. The Irish have guaranteed pool play games vs. No. 12 seed Pittsburgh (23-30, 10-18) on Wednesday and No. 1 seed Wake Forest (45-9, 22-7) on Friday.
Tiebreakers for each pool are determined by tournament seeds, so it’s essentially imperative the Irish come away with a 2-0 record. That won’t be easy considering Wake Forest is not just widely viewed as the top team in the conference but the best team in the country, period.
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Wake Forest took two of three games from Notre Dame in March by an aggregate score of 17-7. Notre Dame took two of three from Pitt by an aggregate score of 26-19 in April.
Notre Dame pitcher Aidan Tyrell makes All-ACC Second Team
Notre Dame would not be in position to make the NCAA Tournament without the pitching prowess of graduate student lefty Aidan Tyrell. Tyrell made the All-ACC Second Team with a record of 8-2 and an earned run average of 2.84 in 15 appearances and 5 starts.
Tyrell ranks second on the roster with 65.2 innings pitched. He has 57 strikeouts against 24 walks, and opposing batters are hitting .230 against him.
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