Notre Dame baseball returned to the win column and moved to 4-0 in midweek games with Tuesday evening’s 9-6 defeat of Michigan State at Frank Eck Stadium. The Irish, at 13-9 overall and 1-8 in Atlantic Coast Conference play, will host No. 4 Florida State this weekend.
The Irish scored all of their runs in Tuesday’s game during the bottom of the second inning. Each of Notre Dame’s first nine batters reached safely in the eight-hit frame, with six different players recording a run-producing hit. Graduate outfielder Brady Gumpf opened the scoring with a double before senior third baseman Nick DeMarco and freshman outfielder Jayce Lee followed with RBI singles. Freshman infielders Parker Brzustewicz and Bino Watters then went back-to-back RBI doubles, the former’s clearing out a bases-loaded situation. DeMarco finished the lengthy half-inning with a two-run single, his second RBI hit of the inning.
Notre Dame’s offense did very little outside of that second inning, recording only one additional hit and scoring no more runs. That allowed Michigan State to climb back in the game after Irish graduate starting pitcher Dylan Heine departed with two hitless innings under his belt. The Spartans plated one run in the third, then two more in the sixth to make it 9-3. Notre Dame’s effective middle relievers kept the game right there, though, as graduate right-hander Sammy Cooper and freshman right-hander Oisin Lee combined to strike out five in two scoreless innings.
Notre Dame would need three pitchers, including graduate closer Tobey McDonough, to get through a testy ninth inning. Michigan State loaded the bases without swinging the bat and eventually brought all three runners home, as pinch hitter Sam Busch sent a two-run single to center field. However, with the score 9-6 and the tying run at the plate, McDonough locked in and struck out Spartan cleanup man Will Shannon, sealing his fourth save of the year and an Irish victory.
Eight of Notre Dame’s nine starting position players recorded a hit in the game. DeMarco led the way from the eight spot in the lineup, going 2-for-3 with three runs batted. Brzustewicz also drove in three while Watters reached base five times — once on his double and four times on free passes.
Florida State eyeing Omaha again
This is a very different Florida State team than the one that came to South Bend in 2023, when the Irish took two out of three games in late April. That was current Seminole head coach Link Jarrett’s first season in Tallahassee after taking the Irish to the 2022 College World Series and Notre Dame head coach Shawn Stiffler’s maiden voyage at Notre Dame. Florida State wasn’t all put together and subsequently missed the NCAA Tournament that year.
The Seminoles are very well put together now. In Jarrett’s third season, Florida State is back to its traditional status as a program with 24 College World Series appearances. The Seminoles started 19-0 last season and returned to Omaha for the first time since 2019, but they couldn’t get past eventual champion Tennessee, blowing a large lead to the Volunteers in the Opening Round. This year, the Seminoles jumped out to a 15-0 start and, if they can stay healthy, will have as good a shot as ever at their first national title.
Florida State comes in at 21-3 overall and 5-1 in ACC play after being picked to finish second to struggling Virginia in the conference’s preseason poll. At No. 4 nationally, the Seminoles check in as the highest-ranked ACC team in the land. They’ve taken conference series from Boston College and Miami and come off a storybook, 8-4 defeat of rival Florida in Jacksonville on Tuesday. Junior shortstop ended the game by hitting a walk-off grand slam … that completed his cycle. More on him in a few paragraphs.
You have to start on the mound when discussing 2025 Florida State. Last year, the Seminoles could hit with the best but struggled to stay healthy on the mound, keeping them short of championship weekend in Omaha. Not only are they now swinging the bat marginally better, but their 2.99 earned run average ranks among the nation’s best. Jarrett has used the transfer portal masterfully to craft a strong bullpen, as Peyton Prescott (Jacksonville), Maison Martinez (VCU), Chris Knier (Indian River State College) and Evan Chrest (Jacksonville) all have pitched 14-plus innings, own an ERA below 3.00 and began their careers elsewhere.
Its bullpen is terrific, but Florida State’s weekend rotation is ridiculous. Junior lefty Jamie Arnold, a projected top pick in this summer’s MLB Draft, should get the ball on Friday. An All-American last season, Arnold has 34 strikeouts and a 2.92 ERA in 24.2 innings this season but didn’t have his best stuff last weekend at Miami, conceding six earned runs on seven hits in four innings while walking three and striking out only two.
Projected Saturday guy Joey Volini was a different story in Coral Gables. The redshirt junior lefty, a transfer from South Florida, twirled a complete game, punching out nine in seven innings as Florida State claimed a run-rule victory. The burly southpaw, whom Jarrett compared to former Irish ace John Michael Bertrand, has a 0.99 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 36.1 innings. It’s March 28, and Volini has more games started than earned runs allowed. That’s a real sentence.
Expect the Seminoles to throw sophomore left-hander Wes Mendes on Sunday. Like Arnold, Ole Miss transfer wasn’t great against Miami, giving up six runs on six hits and four walks in four innings. However, his overall numbers remain excellent, beginning with 49 strikeouts and a 2.30 ERA. Perhaps most remarkably, none of Florida State’s three weekend arms have walked more than seven batters while each working at least 24 innings.
Florida State’s offense begins with a core trio you’ll see atop the lineup every day. Junior Gage Harrelson will always hit leadoff and play right field, Alex Lodise will bat second and man shortstop and junior Max Williams will hit third and handle center field. Harrelson, a Texas Tech transfer, knows how to get on base (.386 batting average) and cause problems on the basepaths (eight stolen bases). Lodise, a second-year Seminole after starting at North Florida, leads college baseball with a .475 batting average and has totaled eight home runs and a team-leading 30 RBIs. Williams, an Alabama transfer two offseasons ago, leads the Seminoles with 10 home runs and has five of them in his last six games.
Outside of the big three, Jarrett has given junior second baseman Drew Faurot and freshman first baseman Myles Bailey more middle-of-the-order opportunities recently. The streaky Faurot, who began his career at UCF, has a .308 average and seven home runs. Bailey, who is in his first year as a first baseman, also owns seven long balls and ranks second to Lodise in slugging percentage (.671) and OPS (1.112).
If recent weekends are any indication, Notre Dame will start sophomore right-hander Jack Radel (1-3, 7.65 ERA) at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, graduate right-hander Jackson Dennies (2-3, 6.41 ERA) at 2 p.m. on Saturday and junior right-hander Rory Fox (0-1, 3.66 ERA) in Sunday’s series finale at 1 p.m.
