Notre Dame Baseball: Irish win 8th game in a row

The Notre Dame Baseball team is on a bit of a roll right now, and the series sweep of Oakland over the weekend put the Irish winning streak at 8 with just 4 games to go in the regular season (Dayton and a 3 game series VS Pitt).

Notre Dame Baseball: Irish Sweep Golden Grizzlies

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame baseball team secured the series sweep with a 9-3 win over Oakland on Sunday in the team’s final home series of the regular season.

The Irish turned a double play to end the top of the first unscathed. Drew Berkland drew a lead-off walk, and Bino Watters hit a double to center field to put two runners into scoring position. A fielder’s choice by Mark Quatrani drove in Berkland for the first run of the game. Noah Coy and Jayce Lee each drew a walk. Dylan Passo lofted a sacrifice fly to right field to drive in Watters. A walk by Andrew Graham loaded the bases again, and Mason Barth was hit by a pitch to drive in another run for the 3-0 lead through one complete.

The Golden Grizzlies plated a run in the top of the second to make it a 3-1 game.

Drew Berkland led off the bottom of the second with a double down the left field line. Bino Watters added a double to right field as Berkland came around to score.

Caden Crowell dialed up a strikeout, induced a line-out to Noah Coy and got another strikeout to retire the side in order in the top of the third.

Andrew Graham and Mason Barth each drew a walk, and Drew Berkland added a two-out walk to load the bases. Bino Watters hit another double – this time a ground-rule double – to plate Graham and Barth for a 6-1 advantage. Mark Quatrani added a walk to load the bases again, and Noah Coy drew a full-count walk to plate Berkland to make it 7-1.

Crowell posted his second three-up, three-down inning in the top of the fourth with a pair of strikeouts and a pop up.

Oakland plated a pair in the top of the fifth to make it a 7-3 game. The Golden Grizzlies threatened in the top of the sixth before Xavier Hirsch came in to record a strikeout to force the visitors into stranding runners on first and second.

In the bottom of the seventh, Drew Berkland gave the Irish a jolt with a two-out solo home run to left field to make it 8-3. Xavier Hirsch struck out a pair and hung a zero on the scoreboard in the top of the eighth.

Dylan Passo hit a two-out single, and Shane Miranda hit a pinch-hit single to keep the inning going. Mason Barth drew a walk, and a balk brought Passo in to score for the 9-3 lead.