Snowballing: Notre Dame baseball continues slide with 10-5 loss to Virginia Tech

Notre Dame finally had a chance to rid itself the bad taste of last weekend’s sweep at Louisville. For much of a misty evening before expected snowfall in South Bend, it looked like the Irish would do just that.

But ultimately, they didn’t. The Irish fell long before the snow.

Notre Dame couldn’t play Northwestern in a midweek game because of rainy weather and an issue with the Wildcats’ bus driving situation, but Notre Dame got back on the field Friday against Virginia Tech in the first of three games at Eck Stadium this weekend. It wasn’t a warm welcome home.

Virginia Tech (14-6, 3-4 ACC) stretched Notre Dame’s losing streak to four games with a 10-5 road defeat of the No. 12 Irish (12-5, 2-4).

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Notre Dame brought a 5-4 lead into the top of the ninth, but pitchers Aidan Tyrell and Jack Brannigan couldn’t combine to get a save. The former put a man on base with a hit by pitch. The latter allowed a game-tying double, an intentional walk, a regular walk and a single that gave the Hokies the lead.

Virginia Tech put the game away on a sacrifice bunt resulting in a throwing error. Graduate student pitcher Matt Lazzaro launched the ball over first baseman Carter Putz‘s head after a bunt, and three Hokies scored with the bases loaded.

That one half inning doomed an entire day’s worth of work.

Graduate student lefty John Michael Bertrand got the nod for his first Friday start of the season. He had been starting on Saturdays. Bertrand gave up three earned runs, six hits and two walks while striking out six batters in five and two-thirds innings. He left runners at the corners with two outs in the sixth for graduate senior Ryan McLinskey. The Irish clung to a 4-3 lead at the time. McLinskey struck a Hokie out swinging to get out of the jam.

Notre Dame fell behind 2-0 in the fourth, but Brannigan, playing third base before taking the mound in the ninth, tied the score with one swing in the bottom of the frame. Virginia Tech inched ahead again in the fifth, but the Irish came back swinging once more. Senior Brooks Coetzee III smashed his team-leading sixth home run of the season with sophomore catcher Danny Neri on base.

Suddenly, Notre Dame had its first lead. One that almost lasted to the end. Almost.

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Notre Dame worked an insurance run across the plate in the sixth. At the time, it was a big development. Virginia Tech sent a solo shot out of the yard in the eighth to pull within one. The game would have been tied without the Irish’s rally in the sixth. The home run ended McLinskey’s day after one and two-thirds innings of one-run ball. Senior Alex Rao got the middle out in the eighth. Tyrell, a senior lefty and the usual Friday starter, got the final out of the frame.

Tyrell came back in to try to close out the game. It was all downhill from there, like a snowball rolling down a hill and picking up steam as it grows and goes. Brannigan went into the game with an 11.57 ERA after getting taken deep on a grand slam against Louisville. His mark jumped to 23.14 with three earned runs. Lazzaro’s error didn’t do him any favors. In a way, that situation was a microcosm of Notre Dame’s current four-game losing streak. The Irish just aren’t playing complementary baseball at the moment, and that always finds a way to haunt teams even as talented as the Irish.

Notre Dame will try to stop the slide Saturday. First pitch of the second game of the series is slated for 2 p.m.