SOUTH BEND —A dearth of pitching depth once again proved to be Notre Dame baseball’s undoing in a second-round loss to Virginia Tech at the ACC Tournament.
The seventh-seeded Hokies wiped out an early four-run deficit and rolled to a 17-10 win on Wednesday evening, May 20 at Truist Field in Charlotte, N.C.
“Never exciting to walk off with a loss like that, but proud of our group and the way they played all year,” Irish coach Shawn Stiffler said. “I think we showed a lot of resiliency and poise. Tonight’s not a reflection of what I feel like the last month of our season was.”
Starter Ty Uber (4-3) was knocked out in the third and took the loss after giving up a pair of homers to cleanup hitter Ethan Ball. The Hokies kept scoring no matter what pitcher Notre Dame brought in, including a pair of successful safety squeeze bunts in the fifth and sixth innings.
In all, 10 different Notre Dame hurlers threw a total of 197 pitches while allowing 19 hits, six walks and three wild pitches. The runs and hits were both season highs for Virginia Tech, which went 9-for-21 with runners in scoring position.
The game took more than four hours to complete.
The Irish, seeded 10th, had won 12 of their last 13 games but head home at 31-22 overall and 14-18 in the league. Virginia Tech (30-23) advances to face second-seeded North Carolina on Friday in the quarterfinals.
Nine ACC teams are projected to make this year’s NCAA Tournament, but Notre Dame’s modest RPI (66) and strength of schedule (98th) will keep it home for a fourth straight season.
Mark Quatroni’s two-run homer keyed a four-run outburst in the top of the first inning as the Irish chased Virginia Tech starter Ethan Grim after just five batters.
The Hokies, however, responded with a three-run second inning that included a two-run double for No. 9 hitter Owen Petrich.
Another three-run inning in the third chased Uber, the Stanford transfer. Ball, a freshman cleanup hitter, tied the game with a two-run shot to center.
No quick fix for Irish pitching woes
Trailing 12-6 in the seventh, Notre Dame clawed back with a two-out rally highlighted by Shane Miranda’s bases-clearing double off the wall. The Hokies, however, continued an offensive onslaught that saw them score in all but the first and fourth innings.
The Irish took Tuesday night’s opener 5-4 against 15th-seeded Clemson behind three solo homers and 6 1/3 innings from ace righthander Jack Radel. That gave Notre Dame five straight wins over the Tigers, dating to last season, and ended an ACC Tournament drought that stretched back to 2022.
Radel posted a 3.29 ERA in a team-leading 87 2/3 innings. Notre Dame’s other 15 pitchers worked to a cumulative 6.91 ERA in 362 1/3 innings.
“That’s my responsibility to figure out and to get right,” Stiffler said. “Every time I felt like we were moving in one direction, we’d take a step or two back. And you could see there at the end, even today, we’re still kind of hoping a little bit more than planning. Priority number one in the offseason is to get that right.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Too much Virginia Tech offense for Notre Dame baseball to keep pace
Reporting by Mike Berardino, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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