Notre Dame Baseball Enters ACC Championship With NCAA Hopes Still Alive

Notre Dame baseball wrapped up the regular season with a series win at Pitt over the weekend to finish 30-21 overall and 13-17 in ACC play.

The Irish will open ACC Championship play on Tuesday against No. 15 Clemson. Notre Dame swept the Tigers earlier this spring in South Bend, taking the series by scores of 6-0, 8-7 and 7-4.

According to D1Baseball, Notre Dame is still alive to make the Field of 64, which they have been heading into this week in two of the last three years under Shawn Stiffler. 

A year ago, Notre Dame fell to Boston College 5-4 in 10 innings, while the Irish lost to Pitt 9-5 and Wake Forest 7-5 in 2023. 

The path to making the committee have a tough decision would likely be three wins this week in Charlotte. If the Irish win on Tuesday, Notre Dame would play No. 7 Virginia Tech and the winner of that game would face No. 2 North Carolina on Friday. 

Notre Dame did not play Virginia Tech this season, while North Carolina swept the Irish in South Bend (6-5, 13-7, 15-10) the last weekend of March. 

That said, there were clear signs of progress for the program this spring, particularly offensively. Under hitting coach Ryan Munger, Notre Dame finished the regular season batting .306 as a team, the program’s highest average since 2009.

Five everyday starters closed the year hitting above .300, giving the Irish enough firepower to make things interesting this week.

Graduate transfer catcher Mark Quatrani led the offense by hitting .373 with 14 home runs, 64 RBI and a .457 on-base percentage. Sophomore outfielder Bino Watters continued his breakout campaign by batting .368 with nine home runs, 49 RBI and 17 doubles. Graduate transfer outfielder Drew Berkland added 15 home runs and tied Watters for the team lead in doubles.

Sophomore outfielder Jayce Lee quietly became one of Notre Dame’s most important bats down the stretch. The South Bend native finished the regular season hitting .309 with 12 home runs and appeared to be playing his best baseball late in the year.

Freshman first baseman Dylan Passo also showed plenty of promise in his first season, batting .303 with 24 RBI, while freshman catcher Shane Miranda could emerge as a major X-factor in Charlotte.

Miranda has found a hot bat recently in the DH role and went 4-for-9 with four RBI and four walks during the series win over Pitt. In limited action this season, the California native is batting .444 with four multi-hit games.

On the year, the California native is batting .444 with six doubles and 11 RBI in just 15 games, which includes four multi-hit games. If Miranda can continue to give Notre Dame some juice at the plate this week, it could go a long way. 

If Notre Dame is going to make a run this week, the lineup will likely have to carry the load because there are still questions surrounding the pitching staff behind ace Jack Radel.

Radel finished the year 7-4 (3.32 ERA), but did more than his part to give the Irish a fighting chance on Friday nights this season. The 6-foot-5, 250-pounder finished No. 3 in the ACC in strikeouts with 108. Chris Levonas (Wake Forest) led the conference with 110, while Wes Mendes finished second with 109. 

After Radel, life gets interesting for Notre Dame. Grad transfer Ty Uber is the only other pitcher to start multiple games (12) outside of Radel and he’s been effective for the most part. Uber went 4-2 (5.68 ERA), but he’s given up 53 hits in 52.1 innings and walked 23 batters. 

The third starter has been a mix of players after the staff moved freshman LHP Caden Crowell to the bullpen. Crowell showed off why he was MLB prospect coming out of high school at times, but also had the normal freshman growing pains, which are only highlighted in ACC play. 

Crowell finished the year 5-2 (7.49 ERA) and struck out 57 batters in just 51.2 innings pitched. The flip side of that is he gave up 69 hits and 43 runs. That said, Crowell did give up zero runs in five of the last nine outings. A couple good performances in Charlotte could go a long way to providing momentum for him heading into the offseason. 

Graduate transfer Noah Rooney led the Irish in saves with five, but opponents hit .286 off of him. It’s far from the highest opponent batting average on the team, but it’s a peek into some of the struggles the Irish had with the bullpen this year. 

The two arms Notre Dame needs to get going in Charlotte are freshman LHP Dylan Singleton (0-2, 5.35 ERA) and RHP Xavier Hirsch (3-4, 5.90 ERA). Singleton has strikeout power with 40 Ks in 38.2 innings, but much like Crowell, he’s maneuvering ACC play as a true freshman. Hirsch started three games this year but has primarily come out of the pen and recorded 35 strikeouts in 39.2 innings, while walking just eight. 

Defensively, Notre Dame’s youth occasionally showed itself as well. The Irish finished sixth in the ACC in fielding percentage at .975, but there were stretches where inexperience in the infield created added pressure on the pitching staff. Freshmen like Passo, Mason Barth and Jamie Zee have now experienced the unforgiving nature of ACC baseball and there’s little margin for error this time of year.

Ultimately, Notre Dame’s hopes in Charlotte likely come down to the bats staying hot to win three games against ACC pitching. If they can, the Irish have enough offensive firepower to make the NCAA Tournament conversation very interesting. 

Want the latest scoop on the Fighting Irish? Sign up for our newsletter and become an ISD Premium Subscriber: Sign Up for ISD

Notre Dame Fighting Irish Under Armour Golf Leprechaun Motion Quarter-Zip Pullover