Written by Cade Harper ⏐ Writer ⏐ Twitter/X: @CadeHarperIT
Photo by Notre Dame Athletics
We are officially a little over a half of the way through the Collegiate Baseball season here in South Bend. The Irish stand at 14-12, which is a solid start considering they've only played five games at home this season and plenty of room available for growth to crack inside the top 25 hopefully. Unfortunately, Notre Dame plays in the ACC and sit at 2-10 in conference play. The ACC is home to 8 teams in the top 25, who are currently a combined 169 wins to 47 losses. Notre Dame has already faced off against three top-25 ACC opponents in Virginia Tech, Florida State, and NC State.
The bittersweet story so far has been the Irish offense, which is red hot when facing non-conference opponents. When it comes to ACC play, however, the same can not be said. The Irish have posted double digit runs ten times, and only one time have they been able to do it against an in-conference foe. In five of the twelve ACC games they've played, they have allowed double digit runs. In half of those games, the Notre Dame offense has failed to round the bases five or more times.
Notre Dame is about to host just their second home series this season just 26 games into the season which is absurd to think of. They've held one single series inside The Eck so far, plus two non-conference games against Purdue & Western Michigan, won both. Now they welcome in the 24-3 Clemson Tigers in a 3 game weekend series starting Friday, April 5th - Sunday, April 7th. The Irish finally got on the board in ACC play vs Miami, getting their first two wins in Conference Play. The offense tends to be active almost averaging double digit runs when playing at home.
Key series' to keep an eye on throughout the season that are big time games in terms of conference tournament seeding and even NCAA tournament berths. Irish will visit #10 North Carolina for a weekend series a week after Clemson, host #21 Wake Forest for 3 games April 26th - April 28th, close out their 6 game homestead vs Pittsburgh and Toledo, and finish strong against a sneaky good Louisville team who tends to get hot at the perfect time each year, and we have them on their Senior night. To tune into Clemson vs Notre Dame this weekend, be sure to head over to ACC Network to watch the Irish begin to make the push for postseason play at 4:30PM EST on Friday, April 5th, 2:00PM EST on Saturday, April 6th on ESPN2, and then 1:00PM EST on Sunday, April 7th. As always, Go Irish!
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