Saturday’s Notre Dame-NC State baseball game canceled

On3 imageby:Ashton Pollard03/12/22

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The second game of a ranked matchup between No. 3 Notre Dame (10-1, 1-0 ACC) and No. 25 NC State (9-5, 0-1 ACC) will have to wait.

Less than an hour before first pitch was scheduled, NC State announced Saturday’s game will not be played. The Raleigh area is set to be hit by snow this afternoon with temperatures hovering in the 30s. Additionally, high winds will hit the area, gusting up to 40 miles per hour. That’s not exactly baseball weather.

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The teams will not play a double header tomorrow; there will be one game at 1 p.m. ET on the ACC Network Extra.

The Irish were scheduled to have ace and graduate student John Michael Bertrand (3-0) on the mound, while the Wolfpack had Matt Willadsen (0-0) slated to make the start. Prior to Saturday’s cancellation, Notre Dame’s Austin Temple (2-0) and NC State’s David Harrison (2-1) were set to get the nod for Game 3. The starters for tomorrow have not been announced after the scheduling changes.

The two teams are trending in completely different directions heading into the series finale. Notre Dame has won eight straight games, while NC State has lost four of its last five, including being swept by Northeastern.

Notre Dame mounts epic Friday night comeback

Notre Dame finished Day 1 of the three-game series with an 8-4 win in 12 innings. All eight of Notre Dame’s runs were unanswered.

The Irish fell behind early, as the Wolfpack took a 4-0 lead in the third inning. NC State entered the game as the nation’s No. 5 offense, and it looked early like Notre Dame was going to fail its first real test of the 2022 college baseball season.

NC State starting pitcher Sam Highfill had given up just two hits and zero runs through 101 pitches and six innings. Then came pitch No. 102, one which Irish first baseman Carter Putz launched out of the park for his second home run of the season. 

Notre Dame ultimately tied it up at 4-4 in the eighth inning, leading to extra baseball. Both bullpens were playing lights out in innings 10 and 11. Neither team reached base.

In the 12th, Notre Dame’s Zack Prajzner smoked a ball for his first home run of the year to give Notre Dame a 5-4 lead, and the Irish added three additional insurance runs on what was becoming a washout night in Raleigh with numerous wild pitches and errors. 

NC State couldn’t score in the bottom of the ninth, and the Irish earned victory No. 10 on the year.

More on Friday’s game can be found here.

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