After a disappointing Tuesday loss to Western Michigan and another postponement of Wednesday’s contest with Eastern Michigan, Notre Dame baseball returns to Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) play this weekend. At 14-12 overall and 2-10 within league action, the Irish will host Virginia Tech (20-9, 7-5 ACC) for three games at Frank Eck Stadium.
Up to this point, Notre Dame has gone 0-for-4 in its attempts to win an ACC series this season. After going 1-5 in difficult road ventures to Wake Forest and Clemson in early March, the Irish have come home and posted the same record against Georgia Tech and Florida State. They showed promise to start last weekend’s set against the No. 4 Seminoles, blasting seven home runs and lighting up the conference’s best pitching staff in a 16-9 Friday win. However, they went down quietly in Sunday’s doubleheader, dropping 4-2 and 17-9 results to lose the series.
Notre Dame followed up with a third consecutive loss, perhaps its worst of the season and certainly one of the lowlights of the Shawn Stiffler era. The Irish never led against a 6-19 Western Michigan at home on Tuesday night, coming up short by a 5-4 score. Notre Dame’s offense couldn’t reward freshman right-hander Kellan Klosterman for his strong midweek start (three hitless innings with three strikeouts), mustering only six hits and scoring one run in the game’s first eight innings.
The top of the order remained a bright spot for the Irish, as graduate outfielder Jared Zimbardo pushed his hit streak to 13 games and freshman designated hitter Bino Watters recorded two hits. Watters remains one of the most advanced first-year hitter you’ll find, logging more hits (30), walks (28) and runs batted in (28) than strikeouts (28). On the flip side, freshman infielders Parker Brzustewicz and Noah Coy struggled, Coy lowering his batting average to .159 and the .341-hitting Brzustewicz having a rare 0-for-5 night.
Entering the Virginia Tech series, Notre Dame’s third starting pitcher remains a bit of a mystery. Sophomore right-hander Jack Radel (1-3, 7.36 ERA) should go again on Friday after turning in a respectable 5.2 innings with four runs allowed against the Seminoles. Junior right-hander Rory Fox (0-2, 3.51 ERA) has become Notre Dame’s clear-cut best starting pitcher, dealing a quality start last weekend and pitching to a 3.00 ERA across 15 frames in his last three outings. Graduate right-hander Jackson Dennies (2-3, 6.41 ERA) did not pitch last weekend, and the man who did, graduate righty Dylan Heine (2-2, 7.66 ERA), gave up eight runs and got only five outs on Sunday.
This weekend will mark the first time Virginia Tech has visited Frank Eck Stadium since both the Hokies and Irish reached the NCAA Super Regionals in 2022. Only one game was played in the 2022 matchup, with the Hokies defeating the Irish on Friday and the remaining two games being washed out by weather. The Hokies comfortably swept Notre Dame in Blacksburg last year to start ACC play.
Hokies coming in hot
Although they lost to Radford at home by an 8-1 score on Tuesday, the Hokies are still 8-2 in their last 10 games. That includes back-to-back series wins against ranked opponents — Louisville at home two weeks ago and a road sweep of Wake Forest this past weekend. A team projected to finish 12th out of 16 teams in the ACC preseason poll, Virginia Tech is now planting its flag within the top half of the conference and gunning for a program-first College World Series appearance.
Last weekend, the Hokies used a combination of overwhelming starts and a gutsy finish to break out the brooms at David F. Couch Ballpark. They set the tone for the series on Friday by hanging nine runs on Wake Forest in the first inning, chasing Demon Deacon starter Logan Lunceford from the mound before he could record a second out. Saturday’s game was only slightly different, as Virginia Tech plated eight runs in the first three innings before surviving a Wake Forest rally that cut the margin to one.
On Sunday, however, the Hokies fell behind for the first time all weekend, entering the ninth in a 3-2 hole. Having found little success all night against Wake Forest starter Blake Morningstar, who struck out 10 in seven innings, Virginia Tech went to work against the back end of the Demon Deacon bullpen. The Hokies took the lead before making an out in the ninth, ultimately scoring four runs before holding on to win 6-5.
Freshman infielder Hudson Lutterman, who delivered the double that tied the game on Sunday, added fuel to an already potent Virginia Tech offense. The Tennessee native was 6-for-13 with three extra-base hits, five RBIs and six runs scored in the Wake Forest series. He’s started eight of Virginia Tech’s last nine games at third base after starting only one of the first 20.
Redshirt senior outfielder Sam Tackett, a First Team Midseason All-American according to D1 Baseball, leads the Hokie offense. After hitting just .189 with two home runs last year, Tackett has erupted in 2025, slashing .410/.492/.770 with 10 long balls and 32 RBIs. During the season’s first series against Bucknell, he launched a home run measured at 500 feet.
The rest of Virginia Tech’s offense hinges heavily on four transfer bats. Junior second baseman Jared Davis, who came over from Florida SouthWestern State, plays second fiddle to Tackett with a .324/.420/.550 slash line, six home runs, 28 RBIs and a team-high 13 stolen bases. Senior outfielder Treyson Hughes, an Ole Miss transfer, has missed time but still owns an .868 OPS. Graduate outfielder Jackson Cherry cut off a great career at Mercer to play in Blacksburg and owns a .319/.500/.553 slash line. Senior infielder David Lewis, a former Clemson Tiger who came over from North Greenville University, has three home runs and 16 RBIs on the year.
On the mound, eighth-year Virginia Tech head coach John Szefc has used the same weekend rotation in each of the past three ACC series. Sophomore right-hander Brett Renfrow (3-2, 2.19 ERA) is practically a lock to start on Friday and comes off consecutive quality starts against Louisville and Wake Forest. Freshman southpaw Jake Marciano (3-0, 5.34 ERA) has handled Saturday duties but struggled significantly in his last two outings. Fellow first-year Logan Eisenreich (1-0, 2.92 ERA), a right-hander, has gotten the ball for each of the last three series finales, pitching no longer than an inning and a third.
Notre Dame and Virginia Tech will play at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, at 2 p.m. on Saturday and at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
