After going 3-3 in their opening weekend, the Notre Dame softball team revisited the Southeast to compete in the Battle at the Beach tournament. The event, hosted by Coastal Carolina University, featured five schools, including the Irish, the Chanticleers, Marist, Kent State and Towson.
As they did in Clearwater during the opening weekend, the Irish started slowly before dominating their second half of games. They lost to Marist (6-0) and Coastal Carolina (8-7) before shutting out both Towson (9-0) and Kent State (5-0), moving to 5-5 on the year.
Notre Dame 0, Marist 6
Marist jumped on the Irish in their first game of the weekend, putting three runs on graduate right-hander Alexis Laudenslager and chasing her in the second inning. The Red Foxes went deep in each of the first three innings, as Miah McDonald homered in the first and third frames, while Samantha Rogers left the building in the second. Senior right-hander Shannon Becker would pitch the rest of the way for the Irish, handling 4 ⅔ innings while conceding two runs on a Sienna Kunze single in the fifth.
On the other side, Marist starter Kiley Myers pitched efficiently and effectively, earning a complete-game shutout. Across her seven innings, she threw 89 pitches and walked none, striking out two and conceding four hits. Only senior catcher Rachel Allen found success multiple times against Myers, going two for two. Senior infielder Anna Holloway added a third-inning double after Myers had retired each of her first seven batters faced.
Notre Dame 7, Coastal Carolina 8
Notre Dame’s Friday finale contained multiple lead changes and a walk-off win for the Chanticleers. Both teams scored in the first inning, as sophomore infielder Addison Amaral brought in senior outfielder Emily Tran with an opposite-way double after her leadoff triple. Coastal Carolina answered against junior right-hander Micaela Kastor, as Georgia Hood collected her first of four hits with an RBI single.
The Irish would reclaim the lead in the third, as freshman infielder Kaia Cortes pulled her first collegiate home run. Delaney Keith answered for the Chanticleers in the bottom of the inning, belting a two-run blast that put the hosting team in the front. Allen then continued her impressive day, tying the game for the Irish with a solo shot down the left-field line.
After Notre Dame grabbed three runs on Amaral and Allen singles to take a 6-3 lead in the fifth, both starting pitchers departed. Kastor finished with three runs allowed, five hits, four walks and seven strikeouts in four frames, while Coastal Carolina’s Abby Henderson punched out five and allowed five runs on five hits while walking none in 4 ⅔ innings.
Sophomore right-hander Kami Kamzik checked in for Kastor and initially pitched well, striking three in the bottom of the fifth and getting the Irish to the bottom of the seventh still up 6-3. However, down to their final two outs, the Chanticleers flipped a switch and rallied. Keith lit the spark with the second home run of the game, a solo blast to make it 6-4. A single, throwing error and stolen bases then put runners on second and third, setting up Maddy Jennings to even the score with a two-run single.
Coastal Carolina’s Nicolette Picone, who struck out eight in 3 ⅓ innings, remained in the game with Kamzik in the circle to start extra innings. The Irish scratched a run across in the top of the eighth, as sophomore utility player Sydny Poeck brought home initial-placement runner Amaral with a single. However, Coastal Carolina did them one better in the bottom half, as Clara Hudgens tied the score with a hit and came around to score the winning run on Hood’s walk-off single.
Towson 0, Notre Dame 9
Notre Dame’s pitching took over on Saturday, beginning with a shutout of Towson. Kamzik and freshman left-hander Brianne Weiss combined to put up zeros across five innings, with Kamzik punching out eight and Weiss three in her scoreless fifth frame.
Meanwhile, the Irish offense awakened with a five-run second inning. Freshman infielder Avery Houlihan started the scoring with a single, and the bases eventually loaded for a bases-clearing, two-out double from Cortes. Four more runs crossed home in the third inning, as Poeck, Tran and freshman utility player Caroline O’Brien each registered an RBI.
Kent State 0, Notre Dame 5
The Irish were even better in the circle against Kent State, shutting out the Golden Flashes across seven innings. Kastor took home the win, striking out seven and allowing only three hits in five innings, while Becker followed with three punchouts in two frames. Neither pitcher issued a walk.
On offense, Amaral got the Irish started fast by paying off Tran’s leadoff single with a two-run home run. The opposite-field shot marked Amaral’s first long ball of the season. She would add her team-leading 12th RBI in the third inning, scoring Poeck. Notre Dame would score again in the fourth, when Kent State mishandled a bunt, and the sixth, when junior utility player Paige Cowley crushed her second home run of the year.
Notre Dame’s Sunday game against Towson was canceled, ending the weekend early at 2-2. The Irish will visit Mobile, Alabama, for the Mardi Gras Classic this weekend to play Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (12:30 p.m. Friday), South Alabama (8 p.m. Friday and 5:30 p.m. Saturday), Maine (3 p.m. Saturday) and Lipscomb (11 a.m. Sunday).
