Following their three-game set at the Hatter Classic last weekend, Notre Dame baseball will look to put together another strong weekend as they head to Greenville, South Carolina for four games against two MAAC opponents: Monmouth and Marist.
Playing at Fluor Field — home of the Greenville Drive, the Boston Red Sox High-A East affiliate — the Irish begin the weekend with a Friday afternoon game against Marist as they look to bounce back from a disappointing walk-off loss to Delaware last Sunday.
The Red Foxes began their season with a three-game sweep of Norfolk State last weekend, putting up 37 runs during the series. It will likely be senior left-hander Aidan Tyrell to try and put the brakes on the powerful Marist offense.
Tyrell began his season with a sparkling outing in the season opener against Manhattan last Friday. The senior lefty tossed four scoreless innings and struck out six batters before being pulled with Notre Dame holding a comfortable 13-0 lead.
On Saturday, the Irish have a doubleheader against Monmouth where they will likely start ace graduate student John Michael Bertrand. The left-hander had a strong start on Saturday against Stetson, pitching six innings, striking out eight and allowing just one unearned run. Head coach Link Jarrett will be hoping for a similar start to keep the bullpen fresh for the rest of the weekend.
In the second game of the doubleheader, it will likely be senior left-hander Will Mercer making his first start of the season. Mercer made 18 appearances for the Irish last season, including 11 starts, finishing the year with a 4.92 ERA over 56.2 innings.
The team will finish the weekend with another game against Marist where graduate transfer Austin Temple will likely get the start. Temple transferred from Jacksonville after spending his first four years with the Dolphins. He spent much of last year injured but had an impressive 0.71 ERA over four starts in 2020 before the season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his first start for the Irish last weekend, Temple pitched four scoreless innings against Delaware before allowing two runs in the fifth. He also struck out 9 batters and walked none during his five innings of work.
At the plate, Notre Dame will hope to build on a weekend that saw them score 26 runs over three games. Senior right fielder Brooks Coetzee III had an especially great opening game, hitting two home runs against Manhattan. He managed to carry that momentum through the weekend, hitting .417 with 4 RBI. Graduate student catcher David LaManna was another standout, collecting four hits and six at-bats before sitting out the final game versus Delaware.
First pitch against Marist is 4 p.m. Friday afternoon and the game will be broadcast on the Greenville Drive YouTube channel.
