Texas A&M shuts down Notre Dame, eliminates Irish from College World Series
OMAHA, Neb. — It’s hard to fathom the same Notre Dame Fighting Irish who took out the No. 1 team in the country largely because of an ability to come up with big swings in big moments could go so quiet when it mattered most, but it happened. And Notre Dame’s season is over because of it.
Texas A&M beat the Irish, 5-1, Tuesday in a College World Series elimination game at Charles Schwab Field. Notre Dame finished the season 41-17 after going 1-2 in Omaha. All eyes turn to head coach Link Jarrett, who has been rumored to be the top candidate to replace Mike Martin Jr. at Florida State. Jarrett addressed those rumors with reporters immediately after the game.
And if Jarrett is off to his alma mater, it surely wasn’t the way he wanted to go out at Notre Dame. Not with his players silently staring onto the field while the Aggies celebrating to the tune of their War Hymn.
The third College World Series appearance in program history was certainly special. Seasons like this don’t come around often in this sport somewhere like South Bend. Jarrett made it happen by cultivating a program that plays the right way. The Irish just played all the wrong ways Tuesday.
“If there is anywhere you want to end it, it’s obviously here,” Jarrett said. “How we ended it was tough. That hurts. That wasn’t indicative of our our team plays. We just gave them so many opportunities to capitalize, and they did.”
The first two Aggie runs of the afternoon came home on a Jack Brannigan throwing error. The junior third baseman had two errors in Notre Dame’s first 57 games. He had two Tuesday.
In the same frame, the third, junior righty Liam Simon issued a four-pitch leadoff walk. Then he balked. A&M nine-hole hitter Kole Kaler flared a lazy popup to shallow center. Irish second baseman Jared Miller called his teammates off, but the ball still plopped into the plush east Nebraska grass.
The Aggies led 3-0 after three. They tacked on two more runs in the fifth. Freshman lefty Jack Findlay has been a revelation for the Irish this postseason, but even he got tagged. He allowed a solo homer, a double and an RBI single and was yanked for senior Alex Rao.
Outside of a couple innings, pitching wasn’t the problem.
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Notre Dame only had five hits. Through seven innings, only two runners advanced to second. Nobody advanced to third. Leadoff hitter Ryan Cole got to second in the first after initially reaching on an error. Miller got there in the fifth on a double. That was it.
Brannigan’s body language in the seventh embodied the day for Notre Dame. In the midst of a fly out to right, he slammed his bat into the dirt before the ball even landed in the fielder’s glove. He went 0-for-3. He wasn’t alone in putting up a goose egg. Six other Notre Dame hitters did, including pinch hitter Nick Juaire. He struck out swinging on three pitches in the seventh.
When that’s what happens in a pinch-hitting situation, it’s just not a team’s day. And when a team is behind by five runs for a good chunk of the game, the players start to press — which is never a spot they want to be in.
“You’re trying so hard to keep this thing from getting away that you’re trying to do a little bit too much,” Jarrett said. “When you’re in an elimination game, that’s a hard mechanism to step back from and just come settle and play. I didn’t feel like we ever got into any real rhythm.”
Texas A&M pitcher Nathan Dettmer had an ERA of 13.54 in the NCAA Tournament prior to Tuesday. He was shelled for seven earns runs in 1 2/3 innings in a 13-8 loss to Oklahoma this past Friday. He bounced back to pitch seven scoreless innings with just three hits allowed, zero walks and six strikeouts. That’s baseball. Like Notre Dame only scoring three runs in games against Oklahoma and A&M after scoring seven apiece in its previous two against Tennessee and Texas, sometimes it just doesn’t make sense.
Notre Dame didn’t score until the Aggies went to the pen in the eighth. Senior right fielder Brooks Coetzee hit a 403-foot home run over the right-center fence to lead off the frame. Cole was hit by a pitch and Myers walked, but neither of them advanced to third. First baseman Carter Putz struck out, and catcher David LaManna grounded into a double play.
It was Notre Dame’s best, and last, chance to mount a comeback. But it wasn’t meant to be.
“We emptied the tank,” Coetzee said. “It’s not for a lack of effort or a lack of wanting to be here. It just didn’t fall our way today.”
“I think we were ready to play. We knew where we were and our backs were against the wall,” Miller added. “I think we gave it everything we got. It just wasn’t in the cards today.”
