Notre Dame Baseball Thoughts
The 2024 season hasn’t gone exactly as Notre Dame expected it to go through the first two weekends of conference play. Notre Dame sits at 0-6 in ACC play following road trips to Virginia Tech and Florida State.
Now, the season is far from over and it’s way too early to give up on this team as Shawn Stiffler’s best teams have always peaked in April and May. In 2022, Stiffler’s VCU team won 17 straight games during the last month of the year, including upsetting North Carolina in the NCAA Regionals. A year earlier, VCU tallied 22 straight victories before losing in the Starkville Regional.
With eight ACC series left, the Irish need to kick things in gear sooner rather than later if they want to finish strong over the last 24 conference games.
Where do they start?
The first area is getting off to a better start. In ACC play, Virginia scored in the first inning in all three games while Florida State tallied runs in two of the three games. Now, giving up a run in the first inning is fine, but the issue is Notre Dame is giving up multiple runs in the first inning and it’s creating a huge hole to climb out of from the start of games.
There is positive news in that area despite the struggles. Matt Bedford settled down after his first inning on Saturday and didn’t give up any runs in his final three innings of work. True freshman Jack Radel pitched a scoreless first inning on Sunday and only gave up one run in four innings of work. Bedford and Radel are two pieces Notre Dame can start building the rotation around moving forward.
Finding a third starter will be interesting as no other pitcher has found momentum as a starter. It’s one of those issues that’s concerning, but also one Notre Dame workaround. Why can they work around it? The Irish have plenty of talented arms who might best be served in a relief role.
Bennett Flynn and Radek Birkholz combined to pitch four innings on Saturday, giving up four hits and two runs while striking out five. On Friday, Sammy Cooper pitched two innings of one-hit baseball before paving the way for David Lally Jr., who went one inning, giving up zero hits and no runs. Rory Fox pitched three innings, giving up four hits but only one run.
Caden Spivey finished Sunday strong with two strikeouts in an inning of work, while Lally found a way to get a double play ball after giving up two hits.
It’s a strong bullpen despite the high ERA numbers over the first month of the year. In most cases, those ERAs have started to come down and the Irish need to continue that momentum.
One change the staff may consider is letting the younger arms get some run during the midweek games and ride some of the top arms during the weekend. There seems to be a conscious effort to keep pitch counts low for each player or pull a guy after so many innings, even if they are throwing well.
The Irish pitching staff is deep enough to prevent Bedford or Radel from pitching during most midweek games at this point. And yes, Radel getting a couple of innings during the week to gain more experience isn’t bad, but if he can give five innings on the weekend, it might be worth letting someone else go during the week.
Lally’s emergence over the last week in his three appearances is an area to watch. The Michigan native was highly touted coming out of high school, but he’s struggled with his confidence and consistently throwing strikes. In his last three appearances, Lally has started to find the strike zone and show off that strikeout power that made him an MLB prospect. Now, it’s been in small doses, but you can tell Lally is getting his edge back.
Notre Dame doesn’t need to push him to do more right now, but another week (or two) of good ball could allow him to increase his outings.
The other pitcher who is hot right now Is Fox. He’s shown solid movement and that he can handle the moment despite not having a ton of experience. Could he be a starter? I’m not sure, as he’s been so effective out of the pen.
Spivey is probably the pitcher to watch closely over the next week or so. As a freshman, Spivey was dynamic out of the pen and was so-so in his first few starts. Right now, it seems like he’s better out of the pen and someone who can steal three or four innings at a time because he has good stuff. I think he can be a starter in time, but for now, the Georgia native has been at his best in relief.
At the end of the day, Notre Dame has to start better, plain and simple. It’s almost as if they come in too excited or unfocused, but once each guy settles in, they start to work. Do they need to switch something around for the starters in preparation or for guys coming out of the pen?
That’s probably the toughest piece for the staff. The Irish have shown they can pitch well, but they just haven’t done it consistently or dug massive holes. Notre Dame is close to figuring it out and it starts with finding a way to begin games efficiently.
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As it relates to fielding, Notre Dame is fine. They are currently No. 4 in the ACC (.983) in fielding percentage. Yes, it should be higher, as the Irish had a few uncharacteristic errors over the weekend from veterans, but they also made a few plays not many in college baseball could have made.
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At the plate, Notre Dame has been a mixed bag. There’s a lot of good and a lot of bad. The Irish are last in batting average as they sit at .269, but they are No. 4 in home runs with 40.
They are living and dying with the home run right now, which is good and bad. Florida State entered the series averaging 12 runs a game and the Irish held them to 16 runs total in the series. The Irish offense had multiple chances with runners in scoring position and failed.
In games one and two, the Irish batted .167 (1/6) with runners in scoring position, and on Sunday, they went 0-for-4. Finding ways to score is crucial in close games and Notre Dame simply hasn’t done that.
if you take a quick stroll down memory lane, Notre Dame’s 2022 Omaha team wasn’t an offensive powerhouse. They batted .293 (7th) scored 420 runs (10th), 581 hits (8th) and only walked 69 times (14th).
The biggest difference is the strikeouts. In 2022, Notre Dame struck out 425 times which was the second lowest in the ACC. This season, the Irish have struck out 174 times and that’s the third highest in the conference.
They have to get the ball in play, plain and simple.
Individually, I’m not sure how the Irish can shake up the lineup in spots, as this is where Link Jarrett left Notre Dame high and dry with recruiting, and it’s not a good situation. I have seen some folks call for Stiffler to play some of the younger guys. The issue is they don’t have younger guys.
The freshman class consists of seven pitchers and three catchers. The sophomore class is made up of two skill position players (Estevan Moreno/INF and Drayk Bowen/OF) and three pitchers.
Even in the junior class, the non-pitchers are DM Jefferson, Jack Penney, Joey Spence, and Nick DeMarco. Outside of DeMarco, who has batted twice this year, the other guys are playing.
Could Bowen potentially slide into the DH role? Sure. He’s had one collegiate at-bat and that was last week against Radford, so there isn’t much of a body of work. Another option could be getting Spence work at the DH as he’s batting .350 in 20 at-bats and hit home runs in both ACC series.
One can argue that Jefferson (.167) and grad transfer Josh Hahn (.161) haven’t done much better in rotating in and out of the DH spot, while Flores went 0-for-3 in the DH role over the weekend.
The battle between Brady Gumpf and Flores could be one to watch. Gumpf is batting .302 compared to Flores’ .240. Both are solid in the outfield and the edge would slightly go to Gumpf as he has a big arm. Yet, Flores has played in over 180 college games, so that experience has to pay off at some point, right?
Penney’s struggles at the plate have been well documented as he’s batting just .197. The veteran shortstop has a long body of work that says he’ll snap out of it in a big way, so it’s easy to see why the staff is letting him play through it. The other fact is Penney has an elite glove and the middle of the defense is as strong as any in college baseball defensively.
That said, Moreno can play shortstop, so maybe you give him a midweek game there and let Connor Hincks slide to second and play Hahn at first. The only reason is to let Penney reset. It’s not benching him for an ACC series, but let him clear his head for a game and see if that jumpstarts him.
Notre Dame’s other issue is at the catcher position. Freshman Carson Tinney and senior Tony Lindwedel have started seven games, while Spence has started five. It’s a mixed bag right now. Tinney is probably the best behind the dish and Spence is the best hitter. Freshman Troy Reader hasn’t made his collegiate debut to this point, but could he potentially give them some energy at the plate on both ends?
The Irish have made some unfortunate mental mistakes at catcher and it’s likely due to the fact none of the catchers entered the year with extensive collegiate experience. It’s not a shock to anyone in the program as it was an area of concern entering the year, given no one took the spot in fall ball or winter practice.
If Tinney is healthy, I think you’ll probably see a healthy dose of him, but Spence’s bat is something the offense needs. If Notre Dame needs to go to a third catcher, it might be worth it to see what Reader has given Lindwedel is batting .063.
Overall, Notre Dame needs to cut the strikeouts, have mature at-bats and get the ball in play.
But as you can see, Notre Dame has limited options given the status of how the recruiting ended under Jarrett as he had planned to land more than a few big-time grad transfers following the 2022 season.
It’s a tough situation for Stiffler to inherit and one that isn’t an overnight fix as there just isn’t enough depth to make some of the moves other programs have the ability to make.
That said, Notre Dame sitting at 0-6 in ACC play should open the door to everyone having a chance to be active, and if the staff believes a move or competition could provide momentum, they need to do it, as there is only something to gain and perhaps they catch lightning in a bottle.
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