ACC baseball tournament: No. 1 Notre Dame upset, eliminated by Virginia

Notre Dame’s time at the 2021 ACC baseball tournament has come to a screeching end.

The top-seeded Notre Dame baseball team won’t be playing in the ACC baseball tournament semi-finals after getting hammered by No. 8 Virginia on Friday, 14-1.

The Cavaliers used three home runs in the second inning to go up 5-0 and never looked back as the Fighting Irish bats couldn’t get anything going in Charlotte.

Shortstop Nic Kent hit a two-run home run to get the Cavalier scoring started in the second before left fielder Alex Tappen added a two-run blast a few batters later.  First baseman Jake Gelof capped the Virginia scoring for the second inning by hitting a solo home run the very next batter.

Third baseman Zack Gelof would officially put things out of reach with a three-run blast for the Cavaliers in the fifth inning that made the score 8-0.  Virginia would add runs in the ninth stretch the lead to 14-0 before Notre Dame was able to finally score in the bottom of the inning on a Danny Neri RBI-single.

Andrew Abbott went 6.1 innings for Virginia, scattering five hits and just one walk while striking out nine.

John Michael Bertrand didn’t have his best stuff for Notre Dame on Friday as he allowed all five Cavaliers runs in the second inning and lasted just one inning.

No. 8 Virginia now advances to the ACC baseball semi-finals on Saturday as they’ll play No. 9 Duke for a spot in Sunday’s championship game.

Notre Dame now shifts their focus to the NCAA Tournament as its goal of reaching Omaha for the College World Series remains.

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Duke walks off Miami en-route to ACC semi-finals