Written by Cade Harper | Writer | Twitter/X : @CadeHarperIT
Photo by Notre Dame Athletics
Notre Dame's opening weekend was successful to say the least. The Irish swept the Rice Owls in dominant fashion from Friday - Sunday. Notre Dame opens up the season 3-0 under Stiffler and head into their next series against Florida International with some heavy momentum.
One thing these men in gold helmets did this weekend in Houston was fight. Came from behind not only once, but twice on Saturday in their comeback win, and then come from behind again the following Sunday after being down 7-3. They scored a total of 11 runs in the final two innings of each game combined, all runs giving Notre Dame the lead and a win in all games. Irish found ways to score runs not only by hits but by walks, wild pitches, errors from Rice, and even hit by pitches. The only thing to monitor after this weekend would be to limit the strikeouts. Notre Dame struck out 28 times this weekend. However, Notre Dame's at-bat's have been nothing short of productive as they have really put a toll on Rice pitchers as far as increasing the length of the at-bats and giving them high pitch counts causing them to turn to their bullpen inning after inning.
The only rough day was Sunday it felt like. Grad transfers in the bullpen and at the plate have done their job extremely well thus far. 3B Simon Baumgardt recorded 4 RBI's on 3 hits, two of them being home runs, and walked twice. RF Tito Flores got 4 hits along with an impressive 6 RBI's with help from a game sealing grand slam on Sunday. OF David Glancy had himself a weekend getting 5 runs on the scorecard, 2 home runs as well, 4 RBI's, and walked 4 times. Jack Penney led Sunday getting on base 4 times due to walks, and scoring twice in the process. Notre Dame's plate discipline played a factor in getting on base tallying up runs this weekend. Onto the bullpen, Matt Bedford, a Senior who only started twice last season, had a rough start to Sunday letting up an early 3 runs on 4 hits walking two batters. Nate Hardman recorded two saves. The bullpen recorded a total of 17 strikeouts this weekend.
Expect to see more pitchers and position players to make their debuts in the next series which will be again on the road vs Florida International, who is also 3-0 to start the year. This match-up will be a long 4 game series: Friday, February 23 - Monday, February 26. First pitch on Friday is set for 6:30 PM EST.
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