Irish baseball opens March with trip to Birmingham

By TYLER REIDY sports Writer

The notre dame baseball caravan is preparing for its next stop in the heart of dixie. This weekend, the i rish (3-3) will play their third consecutive road series at the university of a labama at birmingham (3-5). notre dame and uab last met on the opening weekend of the truncated 2020 season. i n that series, the i rish took two of the three games, extending their all-time head-to-head lead to 3-1.

Notre Dame looks to gain confidence from commitment

With head coach shawn stiffler’s new regime in place, the i rish have battled through some growing pains early on. even so, the players remain invested in the team’s system. The offense is still developing its identity in the wake of last year’s home-run happy run to omaha. evidenced by a .163 batting average and .247 slugging percentage, notre dame’s hits have been hard to come by. however, the lineup has made up for it with timeliness. Junior catcher danny neri stole the show in that regard last weekend. h is go-ahead dinger Friday and two-run single sunday helped turn another largely quiet offensive series into two big wins.

“a nytime you can do anything that helps your team out, it’s definitely a confidencebooster,” neri said. “You’re always gonna need guys from the top of the lineup to the bottom who are gonna step up in big situations.”

Through two weekends, neri leads the i rish in rbi (five), slugging (.538) and oPs (.913). notre dame’s pitching staff is battling for consistency as well. a fter losing several arms to the offseason transfer portal, the i rish currently hold a 4.41 earned run average. The hurlers took a big step in sunday’s win, bouncing back from a 12-0 loss to allow just four runs. For junior pitcher matt bedford, the change came down to shortterm memory. he tossed three con

From Page 16 say that s aturday’s game will come down to details. notre dame seems to play at the level of whatever opponent they are facing, as evidenced by their performances against strong teams like v irginia and Pitt and in games against lesser opponents like boston c ollege and Florida state.

The i rish need to take all of vital scoreless innings during the middle part of game three, allowing notre dame’s offense to build a cushion.

“The first thing coach stiffler said to us in the sunday meeting was ‘the beautiful thing about our game is we get to wake up and do it again today.’ We put [ saturday] behind us and got back after it,” bedford said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys that are capable of a lot of different things, and i’m just excited to see our best work.” a long with graduate southpaw a idan Tyrell, bedford is one of two i rish pitchers with at least five innings of earned run-free baseball. Look for sophomore arm radek birkholz to ride the wave of momentum going forward. he opened the uncg series with three scoreless innings and will do his best to put notre dame in the driver’s seat the rest of the season.

Small ball, close wins keeping Blazers on track

Through its first eight games, uab has become well-acquainted with the nail-biter. six of those contests were decided by two runs or less. Like notre dame, the blazers sandwiched a lopsided loss between two dramatic wins against murray state. They played again Tuesday, coming out on the wrong end of an 8-7 battle with Troy. a ll three uab victories have been tight, and the winning formula has been largely the same each time. despite recording no more than five hits in any of the three, the blazers scored early and pitched well late.

uab’s offense doesn’t jump off the page, but a few players have started particularly strong. c hristian h all, who slashed .370/.443/.614 last year, leads the team rbi s and has their only home run.

To complement him, d arryl b uggs has been an on-base machine. he currently carries a five-game hitting streak and a batting average just below .400. o verall, uab has struggled to a combined oP s around .600, but the i rish won’t let their guard down.

“What stood out to us at the energy and passion they discovered Wednesday night with them to their final regular season game. Their starting five has a solid amount of offensive talent and has been able to play high-level defense at times this season. They just need to put it all together with more consistency to make games like Wednesday’s less of an outlier.

This season obviously did not go the way anyone practice is that they have guys we highlighted on the report with speed,” b edford noted.

“c oach voltz hinted at being on top of our bunt defenses because the guys at the top and bottom of their order — with their speed — can get on and cause some traffic with bunts.” n otre d ame can expect to face two strong starting pitchers in b irmingham. b layze b erry has conquered five innings in each of his first two starts, working his way to a 2.70 era . The e ast m ississippi c ommunity c ollege transfer has a stellar 11-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio and should present a tough test for the i rish offense. c arson m yers should get the ball s aturday. i n two starts, he has tossed a total of eight innings with 10 punchouts for an era of 3.38. s unday arm b rooks Walton has a 6.00 era but allowed just two runs in 5.2 innings last week. d espite a team era of just over six, the b lazers have the high-end starters and bullpen pieces to give the i rish trouble.

The right time to get hot

For both teams, the series will serve as a key segue to the upcoming schedule. uab faces a tough stretch ahead with a uburn and m ichigan slated to follow the i rish. m eanwhile, n otre d ame will open up acc play at g eorgia Tech next weekend. The i rish haven’t lost their first conference series in five years, and a strong effort at uab can set them up well to extend the streak.

“You want to come into conference play winning and feeling good, especially because the acc is a really tough stretch of games,” n eri said. “ i think we can get that done this weekend.”

First pitch times for the weekend series at Young m emorial Field are 5 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. s aturday and 2 p.m s unday.

Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu thought it would. b ut all is not lost. The win against Pitt was not an accident. i t shows that there is more to this i rish team than its overall record. i f they can somehow turn the corner and keep battling, perhaps there is an acc Tournament run left in b rey and this veteran group. Tip-off is set for s aturday at 8 p.m.

Contact Annika Herko at aherko@nd.edu