Notre Dame baseball lost to Michigan State by a score of 7-4 Wednesday afternoon. The Irish dropped to 15-13 on the year, while the Spartans improved to 11-19 overall.
Pitcher Chase Van Ameyde got the starting nod for the Irish. Van Ameyde, a sophomore righty out of Lake Orion, MI, logged one inning and gave up a wind-assisted solo homer to left field. He was replaced by freshman righty Will Jaisle, who delivered two innings of one-run ball. The Irish bats lay dormant until the bottom of the third, when sophomore shortstop Noah Coy got the Irish on the board with an RBI single down the right field line. The score sat at 2-1 Spartans after three complete.
Freshman lefty Caden Crowell took the mound for the Irish in the top of the fourth inning. In that consequential inning, Crowell was tagged for four runs and five hits by the opportunistic Spartans, who took a 6-1 lead, which they’d keep for the rest of the contest.
The Irish didn’t go down without a fight, though. They scratched across one run in the fifth with a sacrifice fly from graduate outfielder Drew Berkland. Later, in the seventh, they used a sacrifice fly (also by Berkland) and a wild pitch to score twice more, making the score 6-4 Spartans with two innings to go.
With sophomore righty Oisin Lee and freshman lefty Dylan Singleton combining to shut out the Spartans in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, the Irish looked poised to make a late-inning comeback and salvage the afternoon. The Spartans, however, stayed one step ahead of the Irish. Michigan State logged an insurance run in the eighth with a solo home run and quelled a ninth-inning Irish rally, ending the game at a final score of 7-4.
Coy led the charge for the Irish at the plate with a 2-3 performance. Berkland paced the Irish with two RBIs but did not record a hit, the streak ended on April 2. Bright spots on the mound came from Lee, Singleton and senior lefty Noah Rooney, who combined for five innings of one-run ball to close out the game.
Lee and Rooney worked a scoreless inning each, while Singleton provided three solid innings, allowing one run on one hit — a solo home run in the eighth. It was a great bounce-back outing for Singleton, who had a rough Sunday against NC State last weekend where he 6-5 lead.
Wednesday’s loss was the first midweek game Notre Dame has dropped all season. The Irish have now lost seven straight games, dating back to their loss two Fridays ago against North Carolina. This weekend, No. 5 Virginia comes to South Bend for an Atlantic Coast Conference weekend series, with first pitches scheduled for Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
