The University of Notre Dame baseball swept Clemson last weekend in its first Atlantic Coast Conference home series of the 2026 campaign. It won Friday’s contest 6-0 and walked off the Tigers on Saturday, 8-7, before taking Sunday’s game 7-4.
It was perfect baseball weather on Friday as Notre Dame welcomed its Atlantic Coast Conference foe, Clemson, to South Bend for game one against the Tigers. With the warm mid-March sun shining down on Frank Eck Stadium, the Irish looked sharp in their white pinstripes and radiant golden helmets and were certainly up to the task of facing a strong Clemson squad.
Clemson rolled into South Bend as the owners of an 18-4 overall record and a 1-2 mark in conference play. Coach Erik Bakich’s Tigers bested College of Charleston and The Citadel in the midweek before heading north to face the Irish.
Notre Dame workhorse Jack Radel (2-1, 2.77 ERA) dueled Clemson ace Aidan Knaak (0-2, 5.29 ERA) on Friday. Radel got the better of Knaak, shoving for nine scoreless innings compared with Knaak’s five innings of two-run ball. Radel looked masterful throughout the performance, scattering four hits over 117 pitches, striking out eight and walking none.
Radel displayed a plus-plus slider with great downward break. The 6-foot-5 righty seemed to get more comfortable as the game went on, retiring 12 of his last 13 batters faced. It was the first nine-inning shutout performance by an Irish pitcher since 2021.
Radel got run support in the third from a solo shot from freshman second baseman Mason Barth and in the fourth off an RBI single by sophomore first baseman Parker Brzustewicz. The Irish added on four more in the bottom of the seventh, highlighted by a three-run opposite-field home run off the bat of freshman third baseman Jamie Zee, who slugged an 0-2 inside fastball halfway up the right-field netting. The game would end 6-0 Irish. In total, the Irish collected two walks and swatted five hits on the afternoon.
With an opportunity to win the series Saturday, the Irish came out swinging with three runs in the first inning. Graduate center fielder Drew Berkland’s solo homer put the Irish up 4-1 through two complete, but the Tigers scored one in the third and three in the fifth to take a 5-4 advantage through five. Junior designated hitter Davis Johnson added one to the Irish tally in the sixth with a solo homer, but Clemson padded its lead with two runs in the seventh, making the score 7-5 at the seventh-inning stretch.
With the Irish down two in the bottom of the eighth, sophomore right fielder Jayce Lee slugged a clutch two-run homer to deep left, scoring himself and Johnson to knot the score at 7 apiece. Freshman right-hander Will Jaisle and graduate righty Eli Thurmond were nails out of the bullpen, holding the Tigers scoreless in the eighth and ninth with a clean frame each.
The Irish bats entered the bottom of the ninth in prime position for a walk-off with the score tied at seven and loaded the bases with two singles and an intentional walk. With one out, Brzustewicz hit a roller to short, setting up a double play for the Tigers that looked to end the inning with no runs scored.
The Tigers got the force out at home, but Tigers catcher Nate Savoie’s throw to first ricocheted off Brzustewicz’s back, allowing him to reach safely. Irish junior catcher Mark Quatrani, who was at second base when the play began, scored on the errant throw. His run put the Irish up 8-7, giving the Irish the series win and a chance to sweep the Tigers on Sunday.
Berkland led the Irish offense with a 3-4 performance. He recorded seven total bases and ended a triple short of the cycle. Freshman lefty starter Caden Crowell spun 3.2 innings of two-run ball, giving up four hits along the way.
The Irish and the Tigers clashed for a final time Sunday afternoon. While Friday’s and Saturday’s contests enjoyed sunny weather in the high 60s, a gray, overcast sky and a stiff left-to-right breeze chilled Sunday’s getaway game. Undaunted by the familiar cloud cover and colder temps, Notre Dame raced out to a 3-1 lead after three innings.
Irish graduate starter Ty Uber was excellent on the mound, giving up one run on five hits in five innings of work. Uber struck out six Tigers batsmen with two clutch strikeouts coming in the top of the fifth to strand a runner at third. The Irish scored multiple runs in the fifth and sixth innings to take a 7-2 lead through seven complete.
Senior Noah Rooney picked up where Uber left off and stifled the Tigers with three innings of one-run ball, escaping jams in all three innings. Thurmond closed the game with a two-run ninth, ending the game at 7-4 Irish and giving the Irish their first ACC home sweep since April 2025.
Irish coach Shawn Stiffler has got to be pleased with how his charges performed this weekend. The offense continued its productive ways, notching 21 runs on 24 hits over the weekend, but it’s the improvement on the mound that really shines for the men in green. Against the Cardinals, none of the Irish three starters went longer than three innings. In their sweep of the Tigers, Radel set the tone with nine lights-out innings in a complete game shutout. In total, the three Irish starters provided 17.2 innings of three-run ball on the weekend against a strong Tigers lineup. Rooney, Thurmond and Jaisle had clutch performances out of the pen as well.
Radel’s draft stock will continue to skyrocket after his shutout performance on Friday. He owns a 3-1 record, a 2.06 ERA and is limiting opposing batters to a .143 average. For the offense, underclassmen continue to drive the Irish lineup, with six out of nine hitters being freshmen or sophomores. Out of the Irish 18 total RBIs on the weekend, underclassmen claimed 13 of them.
Notre Dame will host Western Michigan on Tuesday, Mar. 24, with first pitch scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ACC play continues next weekend with a home series against North Carolina.
