Notre Dame Wins Wild Extra Innings Affair Over North Carolina
Notre Dame (9-2 / 2-0) kept its winning ways going with a wild extra innings victory at North Carolina (10-6 / 0-2). The Irish led by 8-2 at one point before pulling out an 11-8 victory in the 10th.
Notre Dame has been a fast starting team for much of the early part of the 2020 season, and that continued against the Tar Heels.
Left fielder Jack Zyska got the Irish on the board in the first by drilling an offspeed pitch over the left field wall for a two-run homer off North Carolina starter Will Sandy.
North Carolina got on the board in the second with an RBI single from Mikey Madej and tied it in the fourth after a wild pitch from reliever Joe Boyle was followed up by a David LaManna passed ball to bring home Dallas Tessar.
Notre Dame starter Alex Rao couldn’t get out of the fourth and was yanked after giving up a lead off double in that inning. Rao struggled with control, walking three Tar Heels to go along with four hits in three innings.
Boyle replaced Rao and had his own issues with control. He walked two batters to go with the wild pitch that gave up a run, but he got out of trouble by inducing an inning-ending double play.
Boyle seemed to settle in after that, striking out two batters in the fifth and getting a 1-2-3 inning in the six.
The Irish offense went to work in the top of the six as LaManna drove in a pair of runs with a two-out hit that snuck between the third baseman and shortstop. An inning later the Irish added four more to their total, and all the damage came with two outs.
Centerfield Spencer Myers led off the seventh with a walk and moved to second on a Tar Heel error. Putz and Zyska both popped out and North Carolina head coach Mike Fox decided to intentionally walk Irish slugger Niko Kavadas, who already has six home runs in just eight games.
Shortstop Zack Prajzner made Fox pay for that move by ripping a two-out double off the base of the ball to drive in Myers. Two pitches later Brooks Coetzee ripped a three-run homer to make it 8-2 in favor of the Irish.
North Carolina came roaring back in the bottom of the inning. Boyle was replaced by Evan Tenuta after he walked Aaron Sabato to lead off the inning and then following that up by hitting Angel Zarate. Tenuta promptly walked Danny Serretti to load the bases and was immediately pulled for Dominic Cancellieri.
Cancellieri gave up back to back hits that produced three runs before finally getting an out with a strikeout of Tessar. North Carolina wasn’t done, as pinch hitter Tyler Causey laced a two-run single to make it an 8-7 game. Cancellieri was replaced by Aidan Tyrell, who prevented any further damage by getting Madej to hit into a fielder’s choice and then striking out Dylan Harris.
Carolina tied it up in the eighth after a Jared Miller throwing error allowed Zarate to get on and over to third. Freshman Jack Brannigan replaced Tyrell on the mound and proceeded to give up a sacrifice fly to tie the game before intentionally walking Will Stewart and then hitting Tessar to put two on, but Brannigan got out of trouble by getting Eric Grintz to ground out.
Both teams went scoreless in the ninth before the Irish struck for three in the top of the tenth.
LaManna laced a one-out double to get things started and Brannigan followed with a walk. Myers loaded the bases with a single to right, and all three runners were driven home on a bases-clearing double by pinch hitter Eric Gilgenbach.
Brannigan walked Serretti to lead off the ninth but he found his groove and retired the next three batters to pick up the first win of his career.
Coetzee and Gilgenbach both drove in three runs, and Prajzner, Coetzee and LaManna led the offense with two hits apiece.
Notre Dame will look for the series sweep when the two teams meet at 1:00 PM. Notre Dame lefty Will Mercer (1-0, 4.22 ERA) will square off against Tar Heel starter Connor Ollio (1-1, 2.84 ERA).
