Game Thread | Notre Dame at Radford
Notre Dame (9-5) at Radford (5-8)
When: March 12th
Time: 2:00 PM ET
Where: Sherman Carter Memorial Stadium | Radford, Va.
Watch: ESPN+
QUICK FACTS
- Notre Dame leads the all-time series 1-0
- The Irish won 9-8 in March of 2020, which was the final game of the shortened COVID season
- Notre Dame will enter the two-game series No. 2 in the ACC in home runs with 36
- RHP Bennett Flynn leads Notre Dame in strikeouts with 24 in 15.0 IP.
- The Irish have six pitchers with an ERA over 10.00 and just three pitchers with double digits strikeouts.
PROBABLE STARTERS
SUNDAY
| SCHOOL | NAME | RECORD (APPEARANCES) | ERA | IP | STRIKEOUTS |
| Notre Dame | RHP Jack Radel | 1-0 (4) | 4.82 | 9.1 | 9 |
| Radford | William Flanagan | 0-0 (5) | 0.00 | 4.0 | 3 |
NOTRE DAME LINEUP
| NAME | POSITION | BATTING AVERAGE |
| Jack Penney | SS | .255 |
| David Glancey | LF | .293 |
| Connor Hincks | 1B | .358 |
| Tito Flores | RF | .237 |
| Simon Baumgardt | 3B | .345 |
| Brady Gumpf | DH | .278 |
| Estevan Moreno | 2B | .256 |
| Tony Lindwedel | C | .000 |
| TJ Williams | CF | .390 |
RADFORD LINEUP
| NAME | POSITION | BATTING AVERAGE |
| Cameron Pittman | CF | .458 |
| Conner Butler | 2B | .327 |
| Zack Whitacre | 3B | .419 |
| Ben Williams | LF | .270 |
| Carson Bell | 1B | .196 |
| Drew Biggerstaff | C | .214 |
| Austin Stalker | DH | .188 |
| Hunter Keen | SS | .295 |
| Corbin Grantham | RF | .297 |
- Notre Dame has likely been itching to get back on the field after getting swept by Virginia Tech to open ACC play over the weekend.
It was an ugly weekend on the mound for Notre Dame as Virginia Tech scored 32 runs and even more concerning, the Irish only held the Hokies scoreless in eight innings the entire series. The Hokies in the first inning in all three games and never looked back.
Notre Dame’s pitching struck out 22 Hokies, but Virginia Tech pitchers ended the series with 32 strikeouts.
It will be interesting to see how Notre Dame works its pitching rotation for two mid-week games. All the pitchers need work and confidence, but you also need fresh arms for the weekend. The pitching hasn’t completely made sense on paper, yet when the starting pitching hasn’t been consistent, it makes life difficult.
- At the plate, Notre Dame was up and down. The positive was they rallied twice late in game two and game three, but it was too little too late. Virginia Tech was up 6-0 entering the sixth inning on Saturday and the Irish pulled within 6-5 entering the bottom of the eighth. The Hokies scored four runs to put the game away. The Irish entered the top of the ninth down 11-4 and made the game interesting as they scored four runs in the top of the ninth and had the tying run at the plate.
Notre Dame is hitting in spurts. They’ll have big innings, but for the majority of the game, it’s not pretty. The Irish need to focus on getting on base and hitting gaps. Now, they don’t have to play small ball by any means as they are one of the top home run hitting teams in the country, but they are also last in the ACC in batting average.
- The Irish need to take two games here to get some momentum heading into this weekend’s road trip to 14-0 Florida State where emotions will still likely run high as they face Link Jarrett.
*Lineups will be added when released
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