Notre Dame baseball defeated regional foe Central Michigan in a 5-3 home decision Tuesday afternoon. The contest, which was originally scheduled for March 17 but was postponed due to cold weather, was the first of back-to-back midweek games for the Irish — ND hosts Milwaukee on Wednesday. Following the win, the Irish improved to 20-20 on the year, while the Chippewas fell to 18-24 overall.
Tuesday’s victory was a quality come-from-behind win for Notre Dame. After falling behind 2-1 after the first inning, it rallied for a pair of runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth. It then held off a seventh-inning rally and took the contest 5-3.
Junior righty DJ Helwig started the game for the Irish in his first appearance of the season. Helwig lasted just 0.2 innings and gave up two runs. He was relieved by graduate righty Ty Uber with two outs and a man on third in the first. Uber came in and provided a steady hand, quelling the Chippewa rally and going on to spin three hitless, scoreless frames afterward.
The Irish got on the board in the top of the first when leadoff man and senior center fielder Drew Berkland scored on a sacrifice fly from freshman first baseman and cleanup hitter Dylan Passo. The score would remain 2-1 Chippewas until a two-run fifth inning from the Irish.
In that inning, Notre Dame set the table with singles from Berkland and graduate designated hitter Andrew Graham. With men on first and second with one out, sophomore left fielder Bino Watters ripped a double to the left-center gap, scoring Graham. The next batter up, junior catcher Mark Quatrani, hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Berkland, giving the Irish a 3-2 advantage.
The Irish padded their lead with two more runs in the sixth to take a 5-2 lead. Sophomore infielder Parker Brzustewicz and freshman shortstop Jamie Zee combined to do the damage for Notre Dame, with RBIs coming on a Brzustewicz double and a two-out Zee sacrifice fly.
On the mound, sophomore righty Chase Van Ameyde provided a clean fifth inning. He was followed by graduate righty Eli Thurmond, who spun two innings of one-run ball, with the visitors scoring once in the seventh inning to make the score 5-3 after seven complete.
After that inning, the Notre Dame bullpen sent Central Michigan home empty-handed, blanking it in the final two innings. Graduate right-hander Radek Birkholz twirled a clean eighth, and sophomore right-hander Oisin Lee collected his first save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning, securing a 5-3 victory for the Irish.
Brzustewicz led the Notre Dame lineup with a 3-4 performance, collecting an RBI and a run scored. Other notables included Berkland, who went 1-4 with two runs, and Watters, who recorded a 2-4 day and notched an RBI as well. On the mound, Van Ameyde picked up his second win of the year, while Uber was the star with 3.1 scoreless frames, striking out five without allowing a hit.
Looking ahead, Notre Dame will host ACC rival Stanford for three games this weekend, with first pitches scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
