Link Jarrett breaks down where things went wrong for Notre Dame against Oklahoma

On3 imageby:Jonathan Wagner06/20/22

Jonathan Wagner

Notre Dame knocked off top-ranked Tennessee in Super Regionals, and the Fighting Irish began the 2022 College World Series on a high note by knocking off Texas on Friday. But on Sunday against Oklahoma, Notre Dame fell to the losers bracket. Following the game, Notre Dame head coach Link Jarrett broke down what went wrong against the Sooners.

At the end of the game, Jarrett thought that Oklahoma was playing awfully similar to how Notre Dame usually plays. In the end, the Irish were set down on strikes 14 times, and that made it tough to mount any type of comeback.

“Yes. Yes,” Jarrett said. “You saw a little bit of it Friday. That ability they had to finish us didn’t give us enough opportunities to truly threaten them. When you punch out 14 times, you’re forcing them to record 13 outs in the field. If it’s not in play, there’s no chance that that little thing falls in or that ground ball works through there.”

Jarrett knows it came down to a few plays for Notre Dame

Oklahoma out-hit Notre Dame 12-7 on Sunday, winning the contest 6-2. In baseball, though, a four-run lead is far from safe, and Jarrett knows that Notre Dame was just a couple of plays away from being right back in it.

“And that’s clearly what they did and that pendulum swung in their favor, in essence, to me, because of that,” Jarrett added. “When they got the bunt down and just have to record an out on that.

“It was set up almost to have a chance at the plate. He didn’t think he did. And that’s poor execution that led to more, when you hope you’re really expecting that play.”

Moving forward, Jarrett wants to see more competitive at-bats from Notre Dame’s lineup. The Irish will have to fight out of the losers bracket, with an elimination game against Texas A&M looming on Tuesday afternoon.

“So they did a very good job of doing some of the things that you have obviously seen us do,” said Jarrett. “But the punch-outs, if I say it again — I have probably said it a hundred times, to me that was just the difference. And their management of finishing our hitters was better than ours to them.”