Davidson pitcher Blake Hely enrolls at Notre Dame as graduate transfer
Notre Dame’s 2023 pitching staff is starting to take shape. Right-handed starter Blake Hely of Davidson has been enrolled at Notre Dame since the summer academic session opened in June.
Hely confirmed his admission to Notre Dame with BlueandGold.com one day after rising sophomore Jack Findlay decided to retract his name from the NCAA transfer portal and stay at Notre Dame. Findlay and Hely could contend for spots on the Notre Dame starting pitching weekend rotation next season.
Hely has started 34 of his 41 collegiate appearances. He has a career 4.09 ERA. As a senior in 2022, Hely had a 3.80 ERA in 15 starts. He posted a record of 9-2 and struck out 97 batters in 85 1/3 innings. He walked 40 and allowed 65 hits. Opposing hitters had a batting average of .207 against him.
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A Coral Springs, Fla., native and a graduate of vaunted St. Thomas Aquinas, Hely helped his high school team win a state championship and finish with a No. 11 ranking nationally in 2018. Hely got off to a rough start as a freshman at Davidson, posting a 10.59 ERA over 17 innings in 2019. In the three years since then, though, Hely is 16-4 with a 3.45 ERA. He has 189 career strikeouts and 86 walks.
With John Michael Bertrand out of eligibility and the futures of Austin Temple and Liam Simon uncertain, Hely is a great addition to new Irish head coach Shawn Stiffler‘s first staff at Notre Dame — especially considering rising fifth-year senior Alex Rao could turn professional after this week’s MLB Draft. Rao pitched 47 innings in relief in 2022 and could have been a starter in 2023.
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Notre Dame will still have the services of left-handers Findlay, Aidan Tyrell and Will Mercer in addition to righties Hely, Matt Bedford, Radek Birkholz and Jackson Dennies. Those pitchers were used often in Notre Dame’s run to the 2022 College World Series. Still, there are depth concerns with rising sophomores Caden Aoki and Roman Kimball transferring out of the program and with Rao, Simon and Temple potentially departing for various reasons as well.
Notre Dame looked like it would take in Butler transfer Derek Drees, a hard-throwing righty, but he decided to enroll at Arizona instead amid the coaching uncertainty after Link Jarrett left for Florida State and before the Irish settled on Stiffler as the new skipper. The addition of Hely offsets Drees’ decision in a way, but Notre Dame would have loved to have both on the 2023 roster.
Bringing in commits Owen Murphy and David Lally would be monumental for Stiffler if they get drafted this week but decide to put the pros on hold to play college ball. Both are top-80 high school prospects in the country according to Perfect Game. Notre Dame needs all the help it can get on the mound. Many of the pitchers slated to be a part of the 2023 staff have yet to record serious reps in game situations at the college level.
