Statesboro Regional Preview: Notre Dame

Notre Dame enters the Statesboro region as the No. 2 seed after not being selected to host in the regional round. The Fighting Irish likely felt they had earned a top 16 spot after finishing the season 13th in RPI, 4th in the ACC standings with four hosts from their conference, and a higher RPI than two of the four (Miami/Louisville). Notre Dame started the year 12-1 and ended the season with a 35-14 record, 16-11 in ACC play. 

Notre Dame is led by its dominant pitching staff, ranked 12th overall in the country in ERA at 3.91, with every one of their top six pitchers by innings pitched with a sub-4 ERA. Leading the staff is back-to-back First-Team All-ACC starting pitcher John Michael Bertrand who has an 8-2 record in 14 contests with a 2.39 ERA across 90 innings this season. 

The Irish offense comes in with a batting average of .298 and averaging 7.9 runs per contest, these ranking 43rd and 33rd in the country respectively. They have three qualified hitters batting over .300 on the season, including LF Ryan Cole, who was named to the All-ACC third team for the year. 

Georgia Southern hosts two teams in Texas Tech and Notre Dame that both had regional hosting dreams this season, making for an interesting and competitive weekend. With their well-balanced lineup and excellent pitching staff, the Fighting Irish have a very real chance at winning the Statesboro regional and moving on to the Supers. Tech will face off with Notre Dame to begin the regional on Friday afternoon. Per D1 Baseball, the Irish had a perfect record (9-0) against teams with RPI between 26-50 on the year (TTU No. 45) and is 8-3 at neutral site contests in 2022.