NCAA Baseball Tournament: Notre Dame beats Texas Tech after six-hour rain delay

Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock said it best. The “weather man” pulled the Red Raiders’ and Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s starting pitchers a lot faster than the two head coaches thought they would need to going into the opening game of the NCAA Tournament’s Statesboro Regional.

“He had a quick hook,” Tadlock joked during a mid-game interview with the ESPN broadcast crew.

That interview occurred just after 10 p.m. Notre Dame ace John Michael Bertrand threw out the first pitch just after 2 p.m. A five-hour and 57-minute rain delay ended Bertrand day’s early, and it did the same for Texas Tech starter Andrew Morris.

Just before the rain and lightning came, Irish catcher David LaManna blistered a two-run double into the right field corner. The Irish sat on that lead for much longer than the delay. The respective bullpens turned the game into a pitcher’s duel in the early and mid innings. Notre Dame handled it well in a 3-2 victory.

“We were trying to match up as best as we could to finish the game, and we did,” Notre Dame head coach Link Jarrett said. “That’s how you have to manage it when you don’t get very deep with your starter.”

And even in defeat it ended up working out for a while for Tadlock and Texas Tech, too. He said his team might have faced an even larger deficit than two runs had the delay not occurred exactly when it did.

Maybe the ole weather man was just looking out for ’em.

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It took eight innings for Texas Tech to plate a run. The Red Raiders scored two in the top of the eighth. The game was tied for about as long as the first inning lasted before the delay, though. Notre Dame responded in the bottom of the frame and held on in the top of the ninth to squeak away with a win. The Irish advanced to the winner’s bracket while Texas Tech fell one loss away from elimination.

Notre Dame’s Liam Simon and Alex Rao combined to throw six innings of one-run baseball. Texas Tech’s Chase Hampton went six innings by himself without allowing an earned run. Simon tied a career high with eight strikeouts. Hampton set a new career mark with 12. In total, the teams combined to strike out 34 times (15 for Notre Dame batters, 19 for Texas Tech hitters).

“When you have a chance to put people away, you have to make the pitches to put people away,” Jarrett said.

Simon turned the game over to Rao in the fifth, and he was just as stifling as his predecessor in his own way. Simon brought the heat. Rao brought the breaking balls. The Red Raiders couldn’t touch either.

“You hadn’t seen a ball moving in over six hours,” Tadlock said. “You’d been eating sandwiches, taking naps, playing games, and all the sudden you’re seeing 97 (miles per hour) under lights you hadn’t hit under. It was just a little bit of a different deal.”

Hampton was even harsher on the Notre Dame lineup than Simon and Rao were on Texas Tech’s. He had his own version of the Simon heater and a curve that caught the Irish looking on many of his punch outs.

When Jarrett had to move on from Simon and Rao and Tadlock couldn’t keep Hampton in any longer, things went slightly awry for both pitching staffs. Matt Bedford hit the first Texas Tech batter he faced. On the first pitch, no less. Will Mercer generated a groundout, but it moved two runners into scoring position. Then he gave up a two-run single that tied the game.

Notre Dame manufactured the game-winning run on a rally that started with LaManna taking first base via catcher’s interference on a swing and a miss. He advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Jared Miller, who has been out for weeks with a shoulder injury, pinch ran for LaManna. It was his first appearance since May 14. He stole third and scored on a wild pitch.

Tadlock called the steal a “gutsy move.” Jarrett just calls it Notre Dame small ball.

“Miller — the poor guy is banged up — I told him today, ‘I’m going to find a way to get you in that game,'” Jarrett said. “When I saw how this thing was developing with him having a chance to run for (LaManna), I thought we could steal third base. And Miller’s got to do it. He’s got the savvy.”

Savvy enough to score.

The Red Raiders worked the tying run into scoring position in the top of the ninth, but second base was as far as it advanced. Jarrett played matchups and used three different pitchers in the ninth. Aidan Tyrell was the one who ultimately slammed the door with a game-ending strikeout.

Notre Dame will face the winner of Georgia Southern and UNC Greensboro, which starts at 10 a.m. Saturday. A game time for the Irish’s next game had not been announced as of Friday night.