Skip to main content
Irish Breakdown

Notre Dame Baseball Drops 2 of 3 to Louisville

Notre Dame baseball dropped two of three to Louisville, bringing its record to 11-6 and 3-3 in conference play.
Jared Shlensky|
Jan 9, 2025; Miami, FL, USA; General view of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish logo before the game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Jan 9, 2025; Miami, FL, USA; General view of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish logo before the game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Notre Dame baseball suffered its first setback of the season after losing two of three to Louisville. Before the series started, the Fighting Irish had won eight of their last nine games and hadn't lost back-to-back games in nearly a month.

And after taking Friday's series opener, it looked like ND was going to remain undefeated in ACC series play, but the Fighting Irish couldn't secure the series after losing on Saturday and Sunday.

The Results

Game 1: Notre Dame 14, Louisville 11
Game 2: Louisville 8, Notre Dame 7
Game 3: Louisville 21, Notre Dame 12

However, ND's offense didn't miss a beat. And maybe more importantly, the Irish may have found another power hitter outside of Mark Quatrani.

Davis Johnson goes deep four times

Quatrani had been Notre Dame's go-to power hitter before this weekend's series, but that may have slightly changed after Davis Johnson hit four home runs this weekend.

Johnson hit his first home run in Friday's series opener and then hit another one the very next day. But Sunday was by far his best performance. Johnson went deep twice, including his second grand slam of the series.

Johnson drove in 13 total runs over the weekend and will probably win ACC Player of the Week honors.

But more importantly, if Johnson continues to mash, the Fighting Irish are going to have a well-balanced lineup that has power from both sides of the plate.

Notre Dame's offense is not the problem

Notre Dame put 33 runs against Louisville, and still lost two of three to Louisville. And it's not like ND's top of the order did all the work either.

Johnson hit seventh in two of three games, and he had the best series of anyone. And Mason Barth, the team's eight-hole hitter, reached base safely three times in all three games.

So, despite losing a series to a solid Louisville team, ND's offensive production is a major positive moving forward. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the starting staff.

Notre Dame's starting staff gets roughed up

Last week, ND's top two starters -- Jack Radel and Ty Uber -- looked like an elite 1-2 punch. But that wasn't the case this weekend.

Uber lasted just three innings in Sunday's series finale after allowing a season-high seven runs on six hits. Same thing for Radel. Radel lasted just three innings in Friday's series opener after allowing six runs.

As for ND's other starter, Caden Crowell, well, things didn't go much better for him. Crowell did go five innings, but he also allowed five runs on nine hits.

Hopefully this was a just minor setback for the Irish, otherwise, expect the conference losses to keep on coming.

Next up

Notre Dame's next game is on Tuesday against Central Michigan. First pitch from Frank Eck Baseball Stadium is at 4:30 p.m. (ET).

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Jared Shlensky
JARED SHLENSKY

Jared Shlensky is a contributing writer for On SI and a freelance play-by-play broadcaster. Jared was previously a sports betting writer for Yardbarker, an On-Air YouTube Personality for the Sports Geek and a minor league play-by-play broadcaster

Home/Baseball