Florida State returns home to welcome an old friend in the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and its head coach Link Jarrett. From 1991 to 1994 Jarret manned shortstop for FSU making it to Omaha three of those four years and as an All-American for the last two. Jarret spent five years in minor league baseball before turning to coaching. After a successful six year stint at UNC Greensboro, Jarrett took over Notre Dame and the Irish’s stock has only gone up.

Notre Dame started the season off 12-1 and then hit a bit of a roadblock losing four of their last five. While Notre Dame did reach #6 in D1 Baseball’s rankings, they did it against a somewhat questionable schedule. The Irish have played all of three games at home this year, as northern teams tend to do. But to be fair they’ve also had a few of those games postponed. That’s all to say that their RPI is slightly higher due to the road splits. The Irish started out ACC play by taking two games at NC State, one was canceled, before being swept at Louisville and losing the only game they played against VT, two were canceled. For a team many picked to win the ACC, Notre Dame has a lot to do to fix its 2-4 conference record.

The Saturday starter so far through the year John Michael Bertrand has taken over the Friday spot. He’s not a big strikeout guy but will keep the ball over the plate and challenge batters. Nor does he walk many. Outside of a six walk games against Louisville in which he gave up just one run he’s kept his walks to a minimum. He mostly limits runs by inducing weak contact only giving up four doubles, a triple and a home run.

Notre Dame has not announced a Saturday starter. Aiden Tyrell has been the Friday starter but has struggled quite a bit in his last two starts. Against NC State he gave up four runs in as many innings and lasted just one inning against Louisville as the Cardinals plated five. Ryan McLinskey is one of Notre Dame’s top relievers with 10 Ks in 24.1 innings and just 4 earned runs in that same amount of time. Expect ND to rely on Alex Rao and Radek Birkholz to pick up some outs here and there but Notre Dame tends to take a full bullpen approach with none of their pitchers often going more than two innings.

From a numbers perspective Sunday starter Austin Temple might be the best starter Notre Dame has. He’s only given up two extra base hits (both home runs) and is holding batters to a .157 average. Ross Dunn is going to have his hands full keeping up with Temple and keeping FSU in the game.

Notre Dame looks to hit their way on base and cause havoc on the base paths. The Irish have a bit of pop in their lineup but outside of Brooks Coetzee’s six home runs there isn’t a ton of slugging in the lineup. They also don’t strike out or walk much. What ND does do a lot is hit for average and it turns into a relentless pressure with somebody always on base.

Friday 4/1, 7:00 PM

Probable Starters: LHP Parker Messick (4-1, 2.84 ERA) vs. LHP John Michael Bertrand (4-0, 2.19 ERA)

How to watch: ACCNX

How to listen: 100.7 FM in Tallahassee

Saturday 4/2, 6:00 PM

Probable Starters: LHP Bryce Hubbart (5-1, 2.17 ERA) vs. TBD

How to watch: ACCNX

How to listen: 100.7 FM in Tallahassee

Sunday 4/3, 1:00 PM

Probable Starters: LHP Ross Dunn (1-1, 2.00 ERA) vs. RHP Austin Temple (2-0, 2.42 ERA)

How to watch: ACCNX

How to listen: 100.7 FM in Tallahassee

Notre Dame top performers

• RF Brooks Coetzee: .324AVG/ 22 H/ 6 HR
• 1B Carter Putz: .333 AVG/ .500 SLG/ 22 H
• 3B Jack Brannigan: .313 AVG/ .597 SLG/ 3 HR
• DH Jack Zyska: .375 AVG/ .917 SLG/ 4 HR

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