I apologize for the lack of updates, as I’ve been out of town recently. Since I last posted, Irish baseball has posted a record of 6-5, dropping four of six conference games. The Irish sit at 16-10 overall and 2-4 in Big East play. After a midweek win against MAC foe Toledo Wednesday night at Eck Stadium, Notre Dame returns to conference play at home this weekend when it hosts Villanova (4-14, 1-5). The Irish need a series sweep this weekend to make a jump in the Big East standings as they near the midpoint  the regular season. The Irish will need to fix some things, both in the field and on the mound, the next few weekends when they face Villanova and Cincinnati before taking on Big East leader West Virginia later in April.

In the Friday game of the Pittsburgh series, the Irish got their sole win of the series, a rare win at Pitt – their first there since May 2005. Sophomore pitcher Cole Johnson, who has really pitched well his past few starts, improved to 3-0 on the season after pitching a complete game against the Panthers.

The Irish escaped a scare in the bottom of the seventh inning. While leading 5-2, Johnson pitched out of a jam after surrendering two unearned runs from two Irish infield errors. Golden Tate, David Mills, Jeremy Barnes, and Casey Martin each notched two hits to pace the Irish offense. Pitt was hot heading into the series, so it was a big win for the Irish.

The Irish pitching struggled in the final two contests, and Notre Dame dropped those two. The Notre Dame pitching staff gave up a total of 29 runs over the two games, and the Irish lost their first Big East series 1-2. Despite scoring 18 runs themselves in those two games, the pitching couldn’t hold the Panther bats.

A Tuesday game at Eck Stadium against Michigan State was rained out. The Irish then defeated Toledo 11-7 Wednesday evening. Notre Dame continued its strong hitting and ran its streak of four or more runs in a game to 14. If the Irish bats can stay as hot as they’ve been, they just need the pitching to come around, and they should be able to make a strong push in conference play.

Against the Rockets, the Irish got a solid relief effort from sophomore lefty Ryan Richter, who pitched four innings of three-hit ball, giving up just one unearned run. At the plate, sophomore David Casey pounded out three hits and four RBIs to lead Notre Dame’s offensive onslaught. The Irish totaled 12 hits on the day. Again, though, the Irish defense struggled with three errors.

Teams this year that struggle early in conference play need only look to last year’s national champion Fresno State for inspiration. The feisty bulldogs, at this point last season, sat at 16-13 and looked nothing like a team poised to make a run at the national championship much less a berth in the regionals. Right now, Notre Dame’s focus should be on making a move in the conference standings, game by game, and the next two weeks should provide the Irish plenty of opportunity to keep their hot-hitting offense going and plenty of opportunity to work out the kinks on a struggling defense and pitching staff. Notre Dame’s defense needs to cut back on the costly errors – something which will only give the pitching staff more confidence as conference play progresses. At times, the pitching staff has shown great flashes, such as Richter’s and the rest of the bullpen’s Wednesday relief effort and Johnson’s quality starts. The staff just needs to string these efforts together throughout entire weekend conference series.

Tickets are on sale now for the non-conference showdown with Big Ten Northwestern at the Chicago White Sox U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago April 15.

Weather this weekend at Eck Stadium calls for rain Friday and Sunday, but Saturday looks good. Hopefully, the Irish can manage to squeeze in the entire series. Again, Notre Dame looks to get back on track in conference play as it hosts Villanova, a team that has lost six out of its past 10 games. Hopefully with Cole Johnson on the mound in the series opener Friday at 5:05, the Irish pitching can set the tone early in the important three-game set.