April 25, 1999
Box Score
NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Junior righthander Scott Cavey
came off the bench to turn in his second impressive outing of the week
while the Irish offense awakened for 18 hits, as Notre Dame crept closer
to capturing the BIG EAST Conference title with a 17-8 victory Sunday
over visiting Seton Hall at Eck Stadium.
Notre Dame (32-10, 16-3 BIG EAST) improved to 17-2 at home this
season while increasing its lead atop the BIG EAST standings, thanks to
second-place Rutgers' 11-4 loss at home to fourth-place Providence. With
six BIG EAST games remaining, Notre Dame has clinched a spot in the
six-team BIG EAST Tournament and can finish no lower than fourth. The
Irish "magic number" for claiming the regular-season title is four (vs.
both 14-7 Rutgers and idle St. John's, which is 10-6). Notre Dame is
just two games shy of clinching a higher finish than PC (12-8).
Seton Hall (19-16-1, 9-10) dropped into a tie with West Virginia
for seventh place in the BIG EAST, just a half game behind Villanova and
Pittsburgh (both 10-10). The Pirates jumped out to a 5-0 lead before the
Irish erupted for their 17th come-from-behind victory of the season,
scoring three runs in the second, five in the third, three in the sixth,
one in the seventh and five in the eighth. The Pirates were guilty of
three errors that led to seven unearned runs.
Cavey (4-1) was strong in relief of junior lefthander Tim
Kalita, who was touched for five runs on six hits and two walks over the
first two innings (with five strikeouts). Cavey's six-inning, 95-pitch
outing included a career-high seven strikeouts and no walks, with one
run and five hits allowed. He faced just 23 batters while rolling up
eight groundouts.
In Tuesday's 14-4 win over Michigan, Cavey picked up the win in
a six-inning starting assignment, allowing two runs on seven hits and no
walks, with four Ks, five groundouts and 24 batters faced in his
82-pitch outing. His combined stats for the week include a 2.25 ERA in
12 innings, 12 hits and three runs allowed, 11 Ks, no walks, a .255
opponent batting average, 13 groundouts and 47 batters faced (11 over
the minimum).
Most impressively, Cavey has totaled 20 strikeouts and no walks
over his last six appearances, spanning 26 innings. He now ranks third
on the team with a 3.86 season ERA, while totaling a team-best 6.6
strikeout-to-walk ratio (33/5) over 44.1 innings (with 47 hits allowed).
SHU junior righthander Damon Ponce deLeon (3-1) took the loss,
allowing eight runs (four earned) on six hits over the first two and
one-third innings.
Every Notre Dame starter except leading hitter Brant Ust notched
a hit, led by three with three-plus hits. Hot-hitting freshman
centerfielder Steve Stanley extended his season-best hitting streak to
12 games, batting 4-for-6 with four RBI and a run scored. Junior first
baseman Jeff Felker pushed his career-best hitting streak to 17 games,
collecting two doubles and a triple in six at-bats, plus three runs
scored. Junior leftfielder Matt Nussbaum boosted his season average to
..293, batting 3-for-4 while factoring in eight of the Irish runs (four
scored, four driven in).
Stanley now is tied with Ust atop the team's multiple-hit games
list, with 15 (including four three-hit games and four four-hit games).
His season batting average stands at .347 (after an 0-for-17 start),
including a team-best .436 in BIG EAST play. Stanley also posted his
second four-RBI game of the season.
Felker pushed his season average to .349, thanks to his ninth
multiple-hit game of the season and fourth three-hit game. He is hitting
.385 in BIG EAST action. Nussbaum collected his 10th multi-hit game of
the season and third three-hit game. Sunday's outburst represented
Nussbaum's first career game with more than two RBI.
Freshman DH Matt Strickroth had a hand in five Irish runs,
batting 1-for-3 with two walks, three runs scored and two RBI. Freshman
third baseman Andrew Bushey pushed his hitting streak to 11 games,
batting 2-for-5 with two RBI and a run scored.
GAME NOTES: SHU opened the scoring on an RBI single from John
Bravette and Ray Navarette's RBI double to center S the Pirates
stretched to a 5-0 lead in the second, on Alfie Critelli's two-out,
three-run shot over the leftfield fence (his fourth home run of the
season) S Notre Dame's three-run second included Nussbaum's one-out
single through the left side (scoring Jeff Wagner), an error on catcher
Shawn Tarkington (allowing Felker to score) and Ben Cooke's sac. fly S
the five-run third was sparked by Alec Porzel's leadoff home run to
left-center (his seventh home run of the season), plus two hit batters,
a dropped popup in shallow left by SS Tony Calabrese and Strickroth's
2-2, two-run single to left (ending deLeon's day) S Stanley then plated
Strickroth and Nussbaum with a two-out, 2-2 single to center vs. senior
lefty Mike Sturgeon S Brian McGee tripled and scored in the fourth for
SHU S the Irish three-run sixth included Paul O'Toole's two-out, 0-2
single to right, a fielding error by the 2B Bravette and Nussbaum's
first-pitch, two-run double to center field (chasing Sturgeon) S
Strickroth then walked vs. senior RHP Matt Duignan and Cooke added an
RBI double down the rightfield line S Bushey's leadoff triple to
left-center and Ust's sac. fly added a run in the seventh S the five-run
eighth included Nussbaum's single up the middle (scoring Felker and
chasing Duignan) and Stanley's 0-2, two-run single up the middle vs.
senior lefty Derek Hurley (plating Strickroth and Nussbaum) S Bushey
then smacked a single up the middle (scoring Cooke and Stanley) S SHU's
Josh Vath's capped the scoring with a two-run single through the right
side in the ninth.
BIG EAST NOTES: Villanova (10-10) moved into fifth thanks to a
15-6 home win over ninth-place Connecticut (8-12), with Pitt (10-10)
also laying claim to fifth after an 8-4 home win over 10th-place Boston
College (5-12) S surging West Virginia (9-10) shut out last-place
Georgetown (2-18) by a score of 10-0 in Morgantown.
SEASON NOTES: Notre Dame's current .762 winning percentage ranks
third-best by an Irish baseball team in the last 63 seasons (the 1990
team won 79.3 percent of its games, at 46-12, while the 1980 team went
29-8/.784) S since late in the 1996 season, Notre Dame is 51-13 (.797)
in BIG EAST regular-season games (35-5 at home) S the Irish are 114-22
(.838) at Eck Stadium in the five-year tenure of head coach Paul
Mainieri, with wins in 70 of the last 81 home games (.864) S Sunday's
game represented Mainieri's 198th win at Notre Dame and his 894th
overall game as a college head coach.
SETON HALL 2-3-0 1-0-0 0-0-2 8 13 3
NOTRE DAME 0-3-5 0-0-3 1-5-X 17 18 0
deLeon, Sturgeon (3), Duignan (6), Hurley (7) and Tarkington, Arslanian
(5). Kalita, Cavey (3), Corbin (9) and Wagner, O'Toole (4).
