Hello Irish fans,
Earlier this month we participated in Wisconsin’s fall tournament, Duel in the Dells. This marks our return to the field for the first time since November of 2019! Here is a rundown of how our weekend went:
The Irish won Game 1 with a shutout 6-0 against Wisconsin! Senior Nolan Downey started on the mound striking out two batters through one inning before exiting with an injury. The offense got on a roll in the 3rd inning starting with a walk by Liam Corcoran and a single by Brendan Hird to get runners on with no outs. Paddy Hincks gets the first RBI of the game with a single up the middle to score Corcoran. After a base-loading walk by Peter Colevas, Peter Mercurio drives Brendan Hird in with a sacrifice fly. With Hincks and Colevas on the bases, Hincks took home on a wild pitch, followed by Sam Sikkink hitting into an error to score Colevas. The Irish ended the inning with a 4-0 lead! The offense kept rolling in the 4th with Peter Mercurio driving in his second run of the day with a single to left field. Freshman Tony Ingram sent another run in the following at bat with a sacrifice fly to put the Irish up 6-0. The star of the show goes to freshman Danny Durkin who pitched 5 innings of relief and tallying 11 strikeouts while only allowing one hit. Leading the offense was freshman Liam Corcoran with two hits as well as senior Peter Mercurio with two hits and two RBIs!
Game 2 was trouble for the Irish against North Dakota resulting in a 9-3 loss. The Irish looked great through two innings with Peter Mercurio keeping North Dakota scoreless from the mound and freshman Tony Ingram smashing a 2-run bomb to left center all the way to the parking lot to put the Irish up 2-0. The 3rd and 4th innings were the downfall for the game due to defensive struggles allowing 8 runs. Sophomore Dash Wuller stepped into a sticky situation in the 4th, but ended the inning with a strikeout. The offense added one more run thanks again to a Tony Ingram double to start off the 5th inning followed by an RBI single by Danny Durkin. Sophomore Keaton Rodgers closed out the game on the mound during the 6th and 7th innings allowing no hits and striking out two! The offense was led by freshman Tony Ingram showing off his power with two extra base hits, two runs scored, and two RBIs.
The whole team came ready to play in a 10-2 victory over Purdue in the final game of the tournament for the Irish! In the 1st inning, Peter Mercurio drove a triple to right field driving in freshman Peter Royeca and Tony Ingram. The very next at bat Danny Durkin drove a double again to right field, scoring Mercurio for the last run of the inning. George Williams started on the mound pitching 2 innings while tallying 5 strikeouts and allowing one run but no hits. A double by Sam Sikkink in the 3rd drove in both Keaton Rodgers and Danny Durkin who reached on walks to put the Irish up 5-1. During the 4th, Junior Brady LaBahn singled and took second on a passed ball setting up an RBI single for Peter Mercurio. Junior Peter Colevas took the mound in the bottom of the 3rd with a dominating performance striking out every batter he faced in two innings of relief. After reaching on a single in the 5th, Dash Wuller scored off of a fielder’s choice ground ball by Brendan Hird to go up 7-1. A string of singles by Peter Mercurio, Travis Williams, and Sam Sikkink added another run for the Irish in the 6th. Both Sikkink and Williams tear up the basepath to score after stolen bases and passed balls to finish the offense off with 10 runs. Grad Student Alex Lavery closed out the game on the mound in the 5th and 6th allowing one run and one hit. The pitching staff gave a great group performance striking out 11 and only allowing 1 hit throughout the whole game.
Another bonus to the weekend was watching freshman Tony Ingram dominate the competition in the home run derby! He tallied 5 home runs during his round including a bomb to dead center easily clearing the 380 ft fence. The closest competitor only hit 2 home runs to give the easy victory to Ingram to wrap up the weekend in Wisconsin.
We are back on the field for our first conference series at Indiana for a 9 inning game the night of November 13th and a 7 inning double header the following morning. We would like to thank all of our fans for their continued support, especially those willing to make the trip to Wisconsin to cheer us on! If you ever are willing to make a donation to our program, please follow this link to donate year round: https://giving.nd.edu. Thanks to all of you and go Irish!
