John Michael Bertrand and two relievers combined to hold UT to three runs as ND pulled out the opening-round victory. Bertrand (10-3) allowed six hits and three runs in 5.1 innings with one walk and four strikeouts.
“I was able to go fastball to both sides of the plate,” Bertrand said, “with a cutter into the righties, which wasn’t called but it was enough to bring it back off the plate.”
Alex Rao worked 1.1 hitless innings with one walk and two punchouts before Jack Findlay retired the final seven hitters with two strikeouts in earning his fourth save.
Jared Miller went deep in the top of the first as the Irish took the early lead. Carter Putz had an RBI fielder’s choice in the third as ND went up 2-0. Eric Kennedy knocked in a run with a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the third as the Longhorns cut the deficit to one at 2-1. Jack Brannigan was originally called out at home on a great slide on a sacrifice bunt, but the call was overturned as the Irish took a 3-1 lead. Zack Prajzner and Spencer Myers had run-scoring singles in a three-run fifth as ND pushed its advantage to 6-1. Douglas Hodo III had an RBI single in the fifth and Murphy Stehly scored on a wild pitch in the sixth as UT pulled within three at 6-3. Putz added a homer in the ninth as the Irish took a 7-3 edge.
“It was fun because I thought all the variety of our offense was on display today,” ND head coach Link Jarrett said. “There’s a couple of balls that left the stadium. Bunting, some base running, and just some good, the two-out hit by Myers, that was a big one, and I could go on and on about some of the game-within-the-game stuff.”