FIU Baseball Sees Mixed Results Against Irish, Split Notre Dame Series

MIAMI, FL – After their first loss of the season against Bethune-Cookman, things looked to spiral out of control as the Panthers fell to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in Game One of the series.

But a tough betting rotation for FIU stopped the Irish dead in their tracks, turning the series around by sweeping the Saturday doubleheader, taking a lead in the series, and making up for the last few games.

The ultimatum on Sunday was only one big hit away from going FIU’s way, but the lowest-scoring game of the series went in Notre Dame’s favor, as the series was ultimately split with both teams collecting a pair of wins.

Jackson Ritchey did not have the best start to Game One, giving up three runs through three innings and being responsible for three more, despite striking out four batters.

FIU found success at the bat in the third and sixth innings, with RBIs by Ryne Guida and Kishon Frett keeping the game in reach, but five unanswered runs by Notre Dame in the latter end closed this game out on a 13-4 whimper for the Panthers.

At least FIU turned over a new leaf on Saturday, playing some of their best offensive baseball of the season so far. The first game of the doubleheader looked like the Panthers would dominate, up to a 6-1 lead after five innings thanks in part to a pair of home runs courtesy of Guida.

Logan Runde led the bullpen with 10 retired batters during his time at the mound to keep the Irish at bay, but things fell through in the bottom of the seventh inning, with seven unanswered runs to take a 7-5 lead.

Things were tense, but the next inning went FIU’s way with another offensive rally, spearheaded by a homer by Kishon Frett, and then a two-run RBI by Brylan West. Notre Dame didn’t have enough left on offense to respond, and FIU earned a tough 10-8 win.

That momentum seemed to carry on to Game Two of the doubleheader as the pitching stepped up and didn’t allow anything from Notre Dame through five innings. At the same time, FIU collected five runs to give themselves a dominating lead.

When the Fighting Irish tacked on four runs, with three coming in a seventh-inning rally, the Panthers did a great job responding with three more runs thanks to another home run by Frett. Overall, another solid 10-5 win for FIU as they racked up 20 runs in two games of work.

The Sunday finale was the odd one out in the series, as it was a defensive-oriented contest that didn’t go FIU’s way. A pair of runs by Notre Dame in the fourth inning was all the scoring done until the eighth when they tacked on one more run for good measure.

A solo home run by Frett began a last stand for the Panthers in the bottom of the ninth. With bases loaded with only a single out recorded, West struck out and Jeff Liquori popped up to center field, sealing a Notre Dame win.

All things considered, not a bad series for FIU as they played their best ball on Saturday against a big program like Notre Dame. While a walkoff win on Sunday would have been surreal, there’s still a lot of baseball left to play.

Such is the case this week when the Panthers host the Seton Hall Pirates for a four-game series that starts on Friday, March 1st at 6:30pm and will continue with a game on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.