In the season opening series for the Irish over the weekend of March 19th and 20th, Notre Dame hosted Illinois State, a team that came into this series having already played a week’s worth of games over their spring break. That extra experience showed.

While the Irish hung in game one, costly errors across the board ended up being the culprit of three tough losses, despite solid pitching out of the gate. The full promise of the Irish bats were also on display in flashes throughout the series, and with more practice against live pitching, Notre Dame will most definitely be able to get out of a series similar to this with at least a couple of wins.

Sticking with the reliable pitching while limiting walks, cleaning up the defense behind those pitchers, and getting some consistency out of the Irish bats are the goals for Notre Dame heading into this weekend’s away series against Illinois.

The Fighting Irish are eager to begin their first season as members of the NCBA’s DI division. With the first series of the season less than a week away, the squad recently wrapped up a productive offseason. The core of 16 returning players led a very talented crop of new members in offseason drills. Each Saturday the team traveled out to Elkhart to work on hitting at the P3 indoor training facility. During the week, situational defense was the focus at the Loftus Sports Center. In addition to working on offense and defense, service was also a large component of the offseason regimen. Every Friday a group of players go to the Boys and Girls Club of South Bend to spend with the kids who attend the club after school. The guys played everything from basketball to freeze tag with the youngsters. The team also participated in the Pink Zone Spin-a-Thon, an event that raises money for breast cancer research. With a productive offseason under their belts, the ball club has lofty expectations heading into the season opener which will take place at home on March 19^th against Illinois State.