Bullpen keeps baseball close to Notre Dame, lose 7-3
Six plus inning of four hit baseball out of the bullpen kept the game close for Central Michigan against Notre Dame on Tuesday.
But, the Chippewas couldn’t get their offense going and lost to the Fighting Irish 7-3.
Senior Jordan Adams had two hits and one RBI while sophomore Alec Ornelas contributed with two hits while scoring two runs. Sophomore Tyler Huntey also had two hits and one RBI.
Head Coach Steve Jaksa said he was pleased with how the bullpen kept his team in the game.
“It’s tough, we just needed to make a couple of plays that we didn’t make early in the game,” Jaksa said. “We did battle back and our bullpen kept us in the game. We played solid the rest of the way.”
Reigning Big East Player of the Week junior Trey Mancini began the second inning for Notre Dame with a double to the wall in left field and advanced to third on a ground ball to second.
Mancini would score on a triple putting the Irish ahead 1-0 with one out in the second and they would add one more run in the inning.
Notre Dame’s first two batters reached base in the third inning. Freshmen Jimmy McNamara would get his first strikeout followed by a ground ball to get two outs in the inning when the Irish scored on a single to left making it a 3-0 lead.
Two more scored for Notre Dame on a single and a throwing error to third giving them the 5-0 lead with two out in the third. It became a 6-0 lead after a double to right field.
Jaksa said that the result might have been different if a few plays on the defensive end were cleaned.
“We had some opportunities and were just one hit away on a few occasions,” Jaksa said. “Bases loaded, first and second two times. We actually put a couple good swings in those situations. If we could have just cleaned up a few plays defensively the result would have been different ... We did some good things; we just have to continue to do it more often.”
McNamara left after two 2/3 innings. He gave up seven hits and four earned runs. Junior Kenton San Miguel would take over on the mound for the Chippewas.
Miguel pitched great for the Chippewas giving them four innings of no-hit baseball and recorded two strikeouts.
Sophomore Pat MacKenzie singled to shallow center giving the Chippewas two runners on with two outs with sophomore Nick Regnier due up next. Regnier walked giving Adams a great chance to cut into the 6-0 deficit with the bases loaded. Adams singled, scoring MacKenzie from third. It was a 6-1 Notre Dame lead after three innings.
In the fifth inning, CMU put two men in scoring position with one out. Ornelas singled and freshmen Logan Regnier walked. Ornelas would score from third making it a 6-2 game after Nick Regnier grounded out to the shortstop.
Huntey came into pinch hit for Ornelas and singled in his first at-bat, scoring senior Tom Lally getting the Chippewas to within three runs, 6-3, at the end of six innings.
Freshman Jason Gamble came into pitch in the seventh inning replacing Miguel. Gamble pitched two 1/3 innings of four hit baseball.
Back-to-back singles from Lally and Huntey put two on with no outs in the eighth. Logan Regnier hit into a double play, advancing the runner to third, but he never came to score.
Notre Dame would add one more run in the ninth on a bloop single to center field increasing the lead to the final, 7-3.
The Chippewas will play a weekend series on the road against Kent State beginning on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.
