Tag: Simon Baumgardt

Notre Dame Baseball: Irish Bats Slug 5 Homers in Sweep of Rice

Get your brooms out!

Notre Dame baseball beat Rice three-straight games to open the 2024 season this weekend, culminating with a 13-10 slugfest victory on Sunday.

The Irish fell behind early Sunday, trailing 3-0 through two innings.  Simon Baumgardt and Connor Hicks got the Irish on the board in the third though by starting the inning with back-to-back solo home runs, only to see Rice answer back with another run in the bottom half.

The Irish sacrificed their way to a run in the top of the sixth to get back within one but Rice third baseman Jack Riedel went big fly with a three run home run to stretch the Owls lead back to four.

Notre Dame erupted for a huge seventh inning to take the lead however.  Left fielder David Glancy started the inning with a solo home run before a slew of walks had the Irish applying pressure all inning.  Joey Spence doubled and TJ Williams singled to help push in what wound up being five runs in the innings for Notre Dame.

Rice wasn’t done however as they’d scratch across another run in the bottom of the eighth to retie the contest at 8.  That set up a memorable top of the ninth for the Irish as Carson Tinney put the Irish back in front with a lead off home run.

Williams, DM Jefferson, and shortstop Jack Penney would all reach to set up right fielder Tito Flores to be the hero as he hit a grand slam to give Notre Dame a 13-8 edge.

Rice wouldn’t go quietly though as a Kyte McDonald two-run home run got the Owls back within two but they’d get no closer.  Ricky Reeth would retire the final two Rice batters to lock down the Notre Dame win and sweep.

The Irish start the year 3-0 with the sweep of Rice and will return to action next weekend in Miami when they travel to take on Florida International.