Written by: Jhett Garrett ⏐ Writer ⏐ Twitter/X: @JhettGarrett
Photo by Notre Dame Athletics
Coming off a sweep this past weekend against Rice, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball squad travels to Miami, Florida for a weekend series with the Florida International Panthers. The Panthers (3-1) are coming into this one following a loss this past Tuesday to Bethune-Cookman, however, picked up a sweep of their own last weekend against Long Island.
The Irish are off to their best start to a season since 2010, and picked up their first road, non-conference three-game sweep since 2020 last weekend. It was thanks to the great at-bats that Notre Dame was working, totaling 27 walks on the weekend, and seven batters hit by pitches. Despite this, the Irish struggled to ever get the bats going, finishing the series with a team batting average of .213.
A name to look out for in this series is infielder Simon Baumgardt. The graduate senior from Evergreen, Colorado went 3-12 against Rice, including two massive home runs along with four runs batted in. Despite striking out six times on the weekend, Baumgardt had an immediate impact for Notre Dame. He did a phenomenal job of putting the bat on the ball, with a slugging percentage of .750, and with his extreme power from the right side of the box, you can expect those outs will start translating to hits. He has a great opportunity to do so this weekend.
Fellow graduate student David Glancy is another power bat in the lineup that can transform this Irish offense. He also launched two big flies this past weekend, while also getting walked three times. It’s his first season with Notre Dame after spending four seasons at St. John’s, and he is already proving that he can be one of the better power bats in the ACC. While you would like to see Glancy get on base a little more against FIU, he like Baumgardt had a lot of loud outs. The hitting situation should not be a concern at this stage in the season.
This early in the year, it is hard to tell what you have in the pitching rotation due to the lack of innings guys are getting. However, even in limited innings, it is hard to not be impressed with the performance that Caden Spivey put together last Friday against Rice. Just a sophomore, Spivey only gave up three hits and a lone run scored, leading the Irish to their first victory of the season. While the probable starters for the weekend have not yet been released, you can assume that Spivey will get one of the nods, potentially game one on Friday.
There is a lot of room for improvement, however, as Jackson Dennies and Matt Bedford didn’t have the starts that they were both anticipating. Between the two, they gave up a combined nine hits, seven runs, five walks, and a home run a piece in 6.1 innings pitched. While it is still early in the season, you still want to see these numbers improve from your starters, and there is a great opportunity to do so this weekend.
It is very realistic for the Irish to be sitting at 6-1, or even 7-0 heading into the month of March.
Game times for the weekend are as follows:
Friday – 6:30 P.M. (ESPN +)
Saturday – 2:00 P.M., 6:00 P.M. (No Broadcast)
Sunday – Noon (ESPN +)
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