With the Irish’s backs against the wall, head coach Link Jarrett looked to left-hander Aiden Tyrell to take the mound and stave off elimination for Notre Dame. It wasn’t pretty, after two batters Mississippi State held a 1-0 lead, but Tyrell settled down held the Bulldogs offense in check before getting pulled in the top of the seventh with one out and two on.
Reliever Alex Rao would get out of the jam but the story was the offense this afternoon. While Tyrell was holding the MSU offense down, the Notre Dame offense continued to stay hot. They immediately answered the run allowed in the top of the first with two of their own on a Zach Prajzner infield single.
The Irish offense would add an unearned run in the bottom of the fourth before starting to pull away. Catcher David LaManna blasted a three-run shot to left as the lead grew to 6-1.
Two innings later in the sixth, Jack Brannigan got into the action as well with a two-run blast of his own to give the Irish a 8-1 lead.
The scoring wasn’t over for the Irish as they added another run when Ryan Cole scored on an RBI single from Carter Putz.
Even though the Irish bullpen didn’t get the job done yesterday, Tyrell made sure they got some rest with his long outing. Rao finished off the Bulldogs, forcing the elimination game tomorrow.
Regardless of how tomorrow turns out, we should all be proud of the effort the Irish displayed this year. Hopefully Notre Dame’s season doesn’t end tomorrow and they head off to Omaha and the College World Series next weekend.