A pair of late inning surges helped the Notre Dame Fighting Irish pull off their upset of the top-seeded Tennessee Volunteers Sunday.
After quieting the nation’s most powerful lineup in the 7-3 win and punching a ticket to Omaha, Notre Dame manager Link Jarrett couldn’t speak highly enough of his young men.
Ryan McLinsky, who is injured and was our closer, he’s our bullpen coordinator, so he’s down there and before the game, I told him, ‘This is what we have to be ready for and you have to be ready for it from pitch 1.’ I hope it doesn’t happen, but you have to be on it from the moment this thing starts and Rao and Findlay have to be kind of that what we call level 1, where that’s mentality and totally engaged in what we’ve got going on, where they are in the lineup and getting their arms loose before they throw.
We did right out of the gate.
Notre Dame was held scoreless through six innings, but were able to break through in the latter innings.
Burns was throwing great, but every decision you make … I felt that way a little bit yesterday to be honest. When you’re playing games of this magnitude, every decision is magnified and if it doesn’t go the way you had thought it would, you feel a little bit responsible for it. These guys answered. The guy was pitching really good, but they just kind of figured it out.
Riding high off the upset of the Vols, the Fighting Irish could do some real damage in the College Baseball World Series. The program’s first appearance in the WS since in 20 years.