With Notre Dame baseball opening its season this weekend, let’s preview its schedule, starting with non-conference matchups.
Non-conference
The Irish have gone 18-5 and 18-4 in their past two years against non-conference foes. This success has come at the hand of relatively weak non-conference opponents, with RPI ranking the 2024 non-conference slate 263rd-hardest in the country and the 2025 opponents 223rd-hardest. The Irish will look to repeat this success against weaker opponents in 2026. After opening the season this weekend with a three-game set at Florida Atlantic, the Irish will stay in the Sunshine State for the Live Like Lou College Baseball Classic, starting on Feb. 20 in Jacksonville. There, they’ll take on Central Florida, LSU and in-state rival Indiana. The following weekend, the Irish will travel to Cookeville, Tennessee, to play Alabama A&M, Illinois-Chicago and Tennessee Tech. During their ACC bye week, the Irish will host Oakland for three games starting on May 8.
The Irish will begin their midweek slate by hosting Eastern Michigan on Tuesday, March 3, before facing Queens University in Charlotte, N.C., on March 10. The following week, they will return to Frank Eck Stadium for four straight midweek games, beginning with Central Michigan on March 17, followed by Western Michigan on March 24, Michigan State on April 8 and Valparaiso on April 14. After traveling to East Lansing for a Wednesday clash against Michigan State on April 22, they will host Milwaukee the following Wednesday before closing their midweek games with a neutral site game against Dayton on May 12 at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio.
The Irish’s best opponent in the midweek figures to be the Michigan State Spartans, whose 2025 RPI ranking was the highest of the bunch at 143. Besides Dayton at 192, none of the other teams’ RPIs were below 200, so the Irish look poised to pick up wins in the midweek for the second year in a row; last year, the squad posted a 7-3 record on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The Irish’s relatively weak midweek opponents, however, could be a curse if unsightly losses to weaker teams pile up. The Irish need to take care of business in the midweek if they want to play in the postseason.
Outside of SEC powerhouse LSU, none of Notre Dame’s non-conference opponents made a regional last year. Two teams to watch for, however, are FAU and Tennessee Tech. FAU managed a 37-win season last year and a 25-8 record at home, claiming a fourth-place finish in the American. While the Irish should take the series in Boca Raton, do not expect the Owls to be a pushover. Tennessee Tech also posted a 37-win season last year and finished third in the Ohio Valley Conference. Last year’s Golden Eagles squad hit a solid .300/.404/.482 but are returning only 42% of their at-bats from a year ago, per d1baseball.com. Nevertheless, Tennessee Tech should be the toughest game in Cookeville, as Alabama A&M posted a 10-40 record last year, while UIC’s was marginally better at 22-33.
The Live Like Lou College Baseball Classic will be the team’s strongest test in the early season. The Irish open the weekend against Central Florida, probably their easiest matchup of the weekend. While the UCF Knights won 20 non-conference games last year, including victories over playoff teams Florida and Miami, Rich Wallace’s squad posted a 9-21 record in the Big Twelve, finishing 13th in conference with a 29-26 overall record. The team returns a pair of stellar junior outfielders in Andrew Williamson and DeAmez Ross. Williamson was an all Big-Twelve honorable mention, slashing 352/.448/.662 while posing a threat on the basepaths with 13 steals on 13 attempts. Ross, another all Big-Twelve Honorable Mention, led the conference with 82 total hits and reached base at a .429 clip. Expect the Knights to start Braden Smith, a transfer from DII Maryville, or Joey Trombley, a transfer from Sacred Heart who carries a 6-foot-6-inch, 230-lb frame and spins a nasty change-up, on the mound against the Irish.
On Saturday, the Irish square off against perennial juggernauts LSU. Defending NCAA champions and winners of two of the past three in Omaha, Jay Johnson’s Tigers look poised to make a deep run again in 2026. They are returning a stellar outfield trio in sophomore Derek Curiel, junior Jake Brown and senior Chris Stanfield, along with junior Steven Milam to anchor the infield at shortstop. One question mark for the Tigers is their pitching staff as they seek to replace third-overall pick Kade Anderson and third-rounder Anthony Eyanson. With Casan Evans, who went 5-1 with a 2.05 ERA for the Tigers in 2025, is projected to handle Friday night duties, the Tigers will probably trust Kansas transfer Cooper Moore as their Saturday starter against Notre Dame. Moore posted a 7-3 record and a 3.96 ERA in 88.2 innings last year, and induced a lot of ground balls while soaking up Sunday innings for the Jayhawks.
The Irish close the weekend against in-state rival Indiana. While going 32-24 overall and 16-14 in the Big Ten last season, missing the playoffs, the Hoosiers played in the postseason in 2024 and 2023. Offense should be a strength for the Hoosiers after averaging 8.2 runs per game in 2025, but pitching could be an area of weakness after losing their pitching coach to the Nationals organization in the offseason and only returning 39% of their innings from 2025, per d1baseball.com.
Overall, while LSU will be a tough customer in Jacksonville, Central Florida and Indiana are winnable games. The Irish would do well to win two out of three and pick up two quality non-conference wins before traveling to Tennessee the following weekend.
Conference
Notre Dame will play 10 out of the 16 ACC baseball teams this season, with d1baseball.com ranking their draw of ACC opponents fourth-hardest in the conference by previous year’s win percentage. That said, the 2026 schedule is split into two parts: of the Irish’s first seven conference opponents, six of them finished in the top seven of the ACC during last year’s regular season. The other opponent, Louisville, finished 10th, but made it to Omaha. In short, the Irish face a brutal beginning to conference play. However, the Irish end the conference slate with Boston College, Stanford and Pittsburgh, who finished 14th, 13th, and 15th, respectively, last year in the ACC. If the Irish can pick up some early victories against the top of the ACC, the last three conference series are great opportunities to end the season on a high note.
The Irish open ACC play with three games against Duke in Durham, North Carolina, starting on March 6. They then travel to Louisville for a weekend series before returning home to host Clemson beginning on March 20. They’ll remain in South Bend as UNC comes to town from March 27 to 29. The Irish go on the road to face the Wolfpack of NC State for three games beginning on April 2 before returning to Frank Eck Stadium to play host to Virginia from April 8 to 10. After a weekend trip to Tallahassee to take on Florida State beginning on April 17, the Irish will host consecutive home series against Boston College and Stanford, opening on April 24 and May 1, respectively. The Irish will close conference play at Pittsburgh for a weekend series from May 14 to 16, before the ACC tournament begins on May 19 at Truist Field in Charlotte, North Carolina, home of the AAA Charlotte Knights.
The Duke series to begin conference play represents an intriguing opportunity for the Notre Dame squad. The Irish head coach Shawn Stiffler has scuffled to open conference play recently, managing a meager 2-10 start in each of the last two years. While Duke is coming off a successful season that saw them win the ACC tournament, the Blue Devils lost their head coach, Chris Pollard, and star centerfielder A.J. Gracia, who slashed 299/.449/.559 on the way to Second-Team All ACC honors, to Virginia in the offseason. New coach Corey Muscara, who came over from Wake Forest, has replaced an exodus of players to the transfer portal with a barrage of transfers from around the country. Indeed, d1baseball.com projects that eight of nine fielding starters and five of the top seven pitching slots will be filled by the transfer portal. The series marks an opportunity for the Irish to pick up some early-season conference wins against a cobbled-together roster and a first-time NCAA head coach.
Notre Dame opens home ACC play with a three-game series against Clemson on March 20. The Tigers, picked to finish fifth in the ACC Preseason Coaches Poll and ranked 20th nationally by Baseball America, have had Notre Dame’s number the past two years. The Tigers swept the Irish in South Bend two years ago and took two out of three games in South Carolina in 2024. Clemson is returning many key pieces from last year’s roster, including ace Aidan Knaak and bullpen stalwart Drew Titsworth, along with second baseman Jarren Purify, first baseman Luke Gaffney and catcher Jacob Jarrell. Clemson’s roster continuity, however, could be beneficial for the Irish, as last year’s series was a close one. Friday’s opener was an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel, with Knaak out-dueling the Irish’s Jack Radel to the tune of a 2-1 victory. The Tigers and Irish split the remaining games, leaving Clemson with a series win. If Radel can go toe-to-toe with Knaak on Friday this year, he would put the Irish in a great position to win the series.
Familiar foe Boston College visits Frank Eck Stadium for three games starting on Friday, April 24. Notre Dame managed a lowly 1-3 record against the Eagles last year, despite the Eagles finishing 28-29 overall with an 11-19 conference record and a 14th-place finish in ACC regular-season play. This year, the Irish will be eager to clip the wings of Todd Interdonato’s squad. Boston College’s pitching staff won’t make it easy for the Irish, as they are returning key starters A.J. Colarusso and Brady Miller, along with key bullpen stopper Gavin Soares. Colarusso and Soares combined for 8.2 innings of three-run ball last season against the Irish in the ACC tournament, eventually leading Boston College to a 5-4 extra innings victory that ended Notre Dame’s season. Hitting will be the Eagle’s weakness, as they lost slugging centerfielder Josiah Ragsdale (.319/.417/.498) to the MLB draft, as well as graduated third baseman Pat Roche (.806 OPS). Boston College was picked to finish dead last in the ACC in the Preseason Coaches’ Poll. Three games against the Eagles represent a golden opportunity for the Irish to pick up conference wins in a league where they are hard to come by. Last year, the Irish let that opportunity slip through their fingers. They can’t let that happen again this year.
