'This was amazing': Link Jarrett shares how Notre Dame baseball responded to recent losing skid
It’s been a rough two weeks for Notre Dame baseball.
After notching a No. 1 ranking in the Baseball America poll, their highest mark since 2002, the Irish were swept at Louisville, had a mid-week contest against regional foe Northwestern postponed twice, lost an ACC home opener to Virginia Tech, and subsequently had the final two games of the series with the Hokies canceled.
The four-game losing skid was head coach Link Jarrett‘s worst by a wide margin. He had never lost back-to-back games while leading the blue and gold prior to this skid.
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But according to Jarrett, you’d never know this disastrous couple of weeks plagued the team, one which has aspirations to reach Omaha.
“At 10 in the morning on Sunday, to watch those guys practice the way they practiced, I went home and told my wife, ‘This was amazing how well we just did after not playing well,'” Jarrett said Tuesday. “The Louisville series was not good. We could have won all three of the games, and we didn’t win any. We should have won the game Friday, too. Those guys show up (on Sunday), and you would never know it.”
So who is leading the charge to get the season back on track? Well, everyone. The entire team showed up ready to work.
“You wouldn’t have sat in the mezzanine and heard somebody rallying the troops, you would have just watched the whole group grind through practice when they didn’t want to practice,” Jarrett said. “It’s pretty special. There was no pout or frustration.
“I just continue to marvel at their determination to be good at this. It doesn’t mean you’re going to play flawless baseball, but the intent is spectacular.”
On to Tallahassee
The Irish topped Northern Illinois 11-2 on Tuesday, but the bigger test of their response to adversity will come this weekend, as Notre Dame heads south to Jarrett’s alma mater, Florida State. The Seminoles are a top-five team in some polls, and the schedule doesn’t get any easier. Jarrett characterized the next two months of baseball as “essentially super regionals every weekend.”
How will the pitching look in the coming weeks? In the past, it’s been Aidan Tyrell on Fridays, but Jarrett made a switch and went with John Michael Bertrand last weekend. He pitched 5.2 innings, allowing three earned runs against Virginia Tech on Friday before the Hokies posted a six-run ninth inning.
“Since our bullpen hasn’t been as strong, we’re trying to decide if Bertrand on Friday gives you a better chance to get through the weekend,” Jarrett said.
Bertrand is 4-0 with six starts on the year and a 2.19 ERA through 37 innings pitched. His ERA is ninth in the ACC, and he is tied for second in the win column.
