On Tuesday evening at Frank Eck Stadium, the Notre Dame baseball team returned to .500 with a 7-1 defeat of in-state foe Valparaiso. Irish pitching did not concede an earned run, striking out 12 while Notre Dame’s offense posted a dozen hits.
Notre Dame entered the day having not only lost six out of six Atlantic Coast Conference series but also having dropped back-to-back midweek games at home. Western Michigan and Northwestern had beaten the Irish in close games on the previous two Tuesdays.
On a cold and windy Jackie Robinson Day in South Bend, pitching ruled the game early on. Freshman starting pitchers Kellan Klosterman of Notre Dame and Nick Baffa of Valparaiso dueled with three scoreless innings each, Klosterman striking out four while allowing only one hit. Both starters departed during the fourth inning, as the Beacons put two runners on with one out, forcing freshman reliever Brady Koester to strike out two to keep the game scoreless.
After that, Notre Dame finally began to knock Baffa around with five runs in the bottom of the fourth. Graduate infielder Connor Hincks hammered a two-run home run, his third of the season, to right field to start the scoring. With another two-hit game, Hincks stretched his hit streak to nine games and now has multiple hits in each of his last five.
A few pitches later, freshman first baseman Parker Brzustewicz came off the bench and tripled home junior shortstop Estevan Moreno, who had doubled. In only four batters, Notre Dame had hit for the team cycle in the fourth inning. Freshman left fielder Jayce Lee launched one more two-run home run for good measure, lasering the ball through a stiff wind in left field for his third round-tripper of the year.
Valparaiso, which left 13 runners on base over the course of the game, had all the opportunities in the world to mount a comeback. The Beacons picked up their lone run but left two men in scoring position in the sixth. Then, after sophomore Irish designated hitter Carson Tinney cranked his sixth home run of the season to make it 6-1, they left the bases loaded on a strikeout from junior left-hander Justin Mayes Jr. in the seventh. They’d go down 1-2-3 in the eighth before leaving the bags packed once more against sophomore right-hander Keenan Mork in the ninth.
Notre Dame now makes its longest trip of the season to take on a struggling Stanford team. After reaching the Men’s College World Series in 2021, 2022 and 2023, the Cardinal took a major step back last year, going 22-33 overall and 11-19 in their final run through Pac-12 play. Now, they’re in the ACC and performing better, but not by much. Stanford enters the weekend with a 19-14 overall record and a 6-12 in-conference mark that places it 13th out of 16 ACC teams.
Earlier this year, the Cardinal looked the part of one of the ACC’s top squads, going 15-3 to open the season with a 5-1 start to conference play against North Carolina and Duke. However, that success rapidly evaporated, with a series sweep loss to rival Cal kicking off an 11-game losing streak that just came to an end this past Sunday at Clemson. All told, the Cardinal have gone 4-11 in their last 15 games, worse than any 15-game stretch Notre Dame has played this season.
Stanford’s top issue right now lies on the mound. During ACC play, the Cardinal have pitched to an earned run average of 8.80, the worst mark in the conference. Notably, the Irish aren’t far off with a 7.92 ACC-only ERA. The Cardinal have also struggled to turn their .306 batting average into actual offensive production, averaging only 6.8 runs per game. This is a byproduct of, among other things, Stanford walking and stealing bases less than any other team in the league.
As far as offensive threats go, Stanford has a collection of everyday starters hitting better than .300 but only one with double-digit home runs and none with more than 20 extra-base hits. Senior infielder Trevor Haskins leads the Cardinal with 11 long balls and 34 runs batted in, while freshman outfielder Tatum Marsh paces the squad with a .380 batting average while barely striking out. Sophomore outfielder Brady Reynolds and junior infielder Jimmy Nati are nice offensive pieces as well, with the two of them combining for 16 home runs and 52 RBI.
Based on the last few weekends of Stanford rotations, the Irish can expect to see sophomore right-hander Joey Volchko on Friday and junior righty Matt Scott on Sunday, with Saturday’s starter still up in the air. Volchko owns a 7.91 ERA and has given up at least four runs in all five of his outings since dealing 5.1 scoreless innings in his ACC debut at North Carolina. Scott hasn’t been much better with a 5.65 ERA and got tagged for 10 hits and five runs in 5.2 innings last weekend at Clemson, although he did pick up the win.
Notre Dame and Stanford will battle at 9 p.m. on Friday, at 5 p.m. on Saturday and at 4 p.m. on Easter Sunday.
