Notre Dame baseball: What to know about the Statesboro Regional, game versus Texas Tech

After a nearly 48-hour waiting period for the Notre Dame baseball team following an ACC Tournament loss to North Carolina on Saturday, the Irish now know their next stop.

No. 2 Notre Dame (35-14) and No. 3 Texas Tech (37-20) will square off on Friday to start both teams’ NCAA Tournament play in the Statesboro, Ga. Regional, home of Georgia Southern. The Irish are looking to advance to their second straight Super Regional; they lost in a three-game series to eventual College World Series champion Mississippi State in 2021.

The Red Raiders will arrive in Georgia after a 15-9 season in the Big 12 and a second place regular season finish. They went 21-5 at home, 13-9 away and 3-6 at neutral sites this year. Notre Dame and Texas Tech share just one common opponent from this spring: Michigan. The Red Raiders opened with the Wolverines on Feb. 18 and beat them 7-6, while Notre Dame hosted Michigan on April 12 in South Bend and won 14-5.

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Texas Tech has reached the College World Series four times under current head coach Tim Tadlock (2014, 2016, 2018, 2019).

The Red Raiders’ offense is a much bigger concern for Notre Dame than its pitching staff. Texas Tech has a team batting average of .294, which was third in the Big 12. Their two best batters, statistically, are second baseman Jace Jung and shortstop Kurt Wilson. Both players have hit 14 home runs this season, which is tied for fourth in the conference. Jung is batting .340 while Wilson has a .329 mark. Wilson has 63 RBIs on the year, second in the Big 12 only to Texas phenom Ivan Melendez.

Jung and Wilson were the only players to start in every Texas Tech game this year.

As far as pitching goes, the Red Raiders have a team ERA of 5.26, which is tied for 115th in the country. Brandon Birdsell is their ace; he’s 8-3 with a 3.00 ERA on the year through 78 innings pitched. His last outing was against Kansas State on May 27, and he went six innings, allowing nine hits, four runs and three walks. Birdsell struck out six Wildcats.

Andrew Morris and Chase Hampton are the other two primary starters for Texas Tech, and they average a 4.77 ERA.

Notre Dame-Texas Tech information

Where: J.I. Clements Stadium (Statesboro, Ga.)

When: Friday at 2 p.m. ET

Watch: ACC Network

Probable starters: TBA vs. TBA

Noting Notre Dame: The Irish have a team fielding percentage of .981, which is 10th in the country; entering conference tournaments, Notre Dame had the fourth-best winning percentage (.736) in the country since 2020, trailing only Arkansas, Tennessee and UC Santa Barbara; Notre Dame went 2-1 in this year’s ACC Tournament, beating Florida State and Virginia before losing to North Carolina.

Noting Texas Tech: The Red Raiders have a team fielding percentage of .977 (fourth in the Big 12); Texas Tech finished No. 45 in the RPI; the Red Raiders went 1-2 in this year’s Big 12 Tournament, beating Kansas State once before falling to Oklahoma and Kansas State in a second matchup.

Breaking down the rest of the Statesboro Regional

Georgia Southern and UNC Greensboro compose the rest of the Statesboro Regional, with Georgia Southern being the No. 16 overall seed.

The Eagles went 40-18 this season with a 23-7 record in the Sun Belt. They were the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament and fell to fourth-seeded Louisiana 7-6 in the championship game on Sunday. As a team, Georgia Southern led the conference in batting average (.321) and hits (333). They also boast a .982 fielding percentage as of May 25, which is eighth in the country.

Irish head coach Link Jarrett was the head coach at UNC Greensboro from 2013-19, and he may have a chance to face his old team this weekend. The Spartans went 34-28 this season and started conference play 0-7. They fought back to win the SoCon for the first time since 2017 and earned an NCAA Tournament bid. UNCG finished third in the conference this year with a 12-9 SoCon record. Like Georgia Southern, UNCG has a team batting average over .300 (.311). Second baseman Hogan Windish led the conference this year with a .380 mark of his own.