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Notre Dame

Notre Dame catcher Carson Tinney enters NCAA transfer portal with 'do not contact' tag

Chandler Vesselsby: Chandler Vessels06/02/25ChandlerVessels
notre dame carson tinney
Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Notre Dame catcher Carson Tinney has entered the NCAA transfer portal with a “do not contact” tag, On3’s Pete Nakos has learned. He played the past two seasons with the Fighting Irish.

Tinney played in 48 games as a sophomore and led Notre Dame with a .348 batting average. He also had a team-high 17 home runs and 55 hits to go with 53 RBI. Those numbers earned him a first team All-ACC selection.

The Fighting Irish missed the NCAA Tournament this past season after finishing with a 32-21 record. Now Tinney will move on to another program for the remaining two seasons of his college career and the “do not contact” tag suggests he already has a school in mind.

Tinney attended Valor Christian High School in Castle Pines, Colorado, where he was a top 200 recruit according to Perfect Game. He also has a sister, Rylee, who plays on the women’s lacrosse team at Michigan.

In addition to his impact this past season, Tinney also played 28 games with 15 starts as a true freshman in 2024. He finished that year with 15 hits and three home runs, flashing signs of the stardom he would show the following season.

In the third year of the Shawn Stiffler era in South Bend, Notre Dame began conference play with a 4-14 record. Then the Irish went on their April and May run, but it was still too little, too late. They finished the year with a 32-21 overall record, a 14-16 mark in conference play and a one-and-done showing at the ACC Tournament. Boston College, a non-NCAA Tournament team by a long shot, beat Stiffler’s team for the third time this year at the conference tourney.

Without Tinney, it’ll be back to the drawing board for Stiffler — which is what it’s been for as long as he’s been at the helm. Notre Dame is 89-70 overall and 38-52 in the ACC under his guidance. Pinning optimism for 2026 on the return of Tinney and a strong finish to the 2025 season would have been ideal, but losing Tinney to the portal puts a major damper on that.

It feels like the Stiffler tenure is getting late early. Tinney’s departure is just another reminder of that.