Game Thread | (G3) Notre Dame at No. 13 North Carolina
Notre Dame (15-17, 2-15) at No. 13 North Carolina (28-7, 13-4)
When: April 14th
Time: 1:00 PM ET
Where: Bryson Field at Boshamer Stadium
QUICK FACTS
- Notre Dame leads the all-time series 13-11
- The Irish are 4-4 when playing in Chapel Hill
- North Carolina took game one 13-0 (7 innings) and game two 7-2.
PROBABLE STARTERS
SUNDAY
| SCHOOL | NAME | RECORD | ERA | IP | STRIKEOUTS |
| Notre Dame | RHP Rory Fox | 1-0 | 5.60 | 27.1 | 23 |
| North Carolina | RHP Aidan Haugh | 1-0 | 3.80 | 21.1 | 30 |
WHAT TO WATCH
It’s been another weekend of frustration and bad baseball for Notre Dame. The Irish are a loss away from being swept in 5 of 6 ACC series on the year, which is hard to fathom at this level. Notre Dame’s issues are in every aspect of the game and at this point in the year, it’s quite frankly hard to find positives.
Sure, it’s college baseball. Teams will have pitching be off for a game or a weekend or the bats won’t be alive. The issue with Notre Dame is they don’t pick each other up. They aren’t able to score when the pitching is off and they don’t pitch well when the bats struggle.
Notre Dame did bat .265 as a team on Saturday and that’s an improvement over Friday night’s .125 batting average. The Irish had high hopes Jack Penney, David Glancy and Tito Flores would provide stability at the plate entering the year. This weekend, the three have combined to go 3-for-19 at the plate. That’s not going to get it done.
RHP Rory Fox will get the starting nod on Sunday and he’s coming off his worst start in an Irish uniform, but it wasn’t all his fault. Last Sunday, Clemson scored nine runs with Fox on the mound, but only three were earned runs. Fox did give up a season-high eight hits in 4.1 innings, so it’s likely he’s been itching to get back on the bump as he did strikeout a career-high six batters against Clemson.
To avoid a fifth sweep, Notre Dame needs at least one side of the ball to show up on Sunday. If not, Notre Dame will return to South Bend with the danger of the staff losing the team in mid-April.
NOTRE DAME LINEUP
| NAME | POSITION | BATTING AVERAGE |
| TJ Williams | CF | .358 |
| David Glancy | LF | .288 |
| Jack Penney | SS | .221 |
| Simon Baumgardt | 3B | .281 |
| Connor Hincks | SS | .290 |
| Tito Flores | RF | .258 |
| Brady Gumpf | DH | .262 |
| Joey Spence | C | .300 |
| Estevan Moreno | 2B | .326 |
NORTH CAROLINA LINEUP
| NAME | POSITION | BATTING AVERAGE |
| Anthony Donofrio | RF | .322 |
| Vance Honeycutt | CF | .281 |
| Casey Cook | LF | .373 |
| Parks Harber | 1B | .355 |
| Alberto Osuna | DH | .349 |
| Luke Stevenson | C | .299 |
| Alex Madera | 2B | .300 |
| Johnny Castagnozzi | 3B | .250 |
| Colby Wilkerson | SS | .301 |
OFFENSIVE STATS (Entering the weekend)
| STAT | NORTH CAROLINA | NOTRE DAME |
| Batting Avg. | ..310 | .271 |
| Runs | 291 | 231 |
| Hits | 354 | 283 |
| 2B | 59 | 51 |
| 3B | 9 | 10 |
| Home Runs | 56 | 50 |
| RBI | 268 | 207 |
| SLG% | .525 | .492 |
| Walks | 194 | 126 |
| Hit by Pitch | 26 | 44 |
| Strikeouts | 257 | 264 |
| OB% | .417 | .369 |
PITCHING STATS (Entering the series)
| STAT | NORTH CAROLINA | NOTRE DAME |
| ERA | 4.42 | 6.31 |
| Hits | 287 | 283 |
| Runs | 171 | 201 |
| ER | 141 | 184 |
| Walks | 137 | 125 |
| Strikeouts | 285 | 230 |
| Opponent Batting Avg. | ..257 | .277 |
Under Armour White Notre Dame Fighting Irish T2 Tipped Performance Polo
