SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame softball team welcomes in the North Carolina Tar Heels for a three-game series this weekend. The 20th-ranked Fighting Irish enter with a 32-9 overall record and are 10-5 in Atlantic Coast Conference action. North Carolina is 23-22 and 6-12 in league play.
The Irish are coming off of an extra-inning midweek win over Indiana in Bloomington, led by a superb performance from Karina Gaskins. Gaskins finished the game 3-for-4, upping her season average to .450, top in the ACC. She was recently named a Top 25 Finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year as she’s putting together one of the best seasons in Irish history. Graduate student Abby Sweet is having a tremendous season in her own right, hitting at a .397 clip with a slugging percentage at .651 and leads the team with 16 stolen bases.
Notre Dame’s pitching staff has earned a 2.55 ERA with three integral pieces. Graduate student Alexis Holloway is the current ACC Pitcher of the Week after no hitting Clemson for the first time in that young program’s history. Holloway has a 2.97 ERA in 24 appearances. She’s logged 94.1 innings with 83 strikeouts. Payton Tidd has been a big-time piece for the Irish this season, starting wins over three top 10 teams. She’s thrown seven complete games and leads the team with 107.1 innings. Shannon Becker adds a team-best 1.70 ERA, earning her ninth win of the season against Indiana earlier this week.
North Carolina enters after a five-inning victory over North Carolina Central in the midweek to close their home schedule. The Tar Heels begin a six-game road swing to end the season beginning with their trip to South Bend. The Tar Heels currently are in ninth-place in the ACC with a 6-12 league record.
Bri Stubbs leads the team with a .363 batting average with a homer, scored 36 runs and leads the team with 28 walks. Sara Jubas has started 44 games, hitting at a .360 clip. She leads the team with 16 doubles and has driven in 36. Skyler Brooks leads the Tar Heels with 13 stolen bases in 19 attempts as she hits at a .342 clip.
The Tar Heels have utilized five pitchers in the circle this season, led by 20 starts by Hannah George. George owns a 4.55 ERA in 92.1 innings of work and tallied 65 strikeouts. Lilli Backes has started 18 games and has appeared in a team-best 27 this year. She’s thrown 107.0 innings, the most on the team and has picked up 91 strikeouts.
Tar Heel Tangles
The Fighting Irish and Tar Heels have met a total of 17 times, with the Irish holding the 17-10 advantage. North Carolina has won five of the last eight games, taking the three-game series in South Bend in 2018, and splitting the four-game series a year ago. Notre Dame is 4-4. The Irish took the series in 2017, and split a doubleheader in 2015.
Top 25 Finalist
Karina Gaskins is putting together a season for the record books. For her efforts, Gaskins was named a Top 25 Finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year. She’s one of just five players from the ACC to be named to the list.
Stats – Current ND Ranking – Current School Record
.450 avg. – 4th – .472 (Sadie Pitzenberger – 2011)
.802 slugging – 3rd – .857 (Cait Brooks – 2019)
.575 OBP – 1st – .537 (Abby Sweet – 2021)
Bouncing Back
The Irish dropped two of the three games at Clemson last weekend, suffering their second series loss of the season. After dropping the series at Virginia, The Irish won the next three ACC series, sweeping Pitt and Syracuse, took a single game from then #7 Duke and took two of three from Georgia Tech.
Thou Shalt Not Steal
The catching combination of Shelby Grimm and Carlli Kloss have limited the opponents running game better than any tandem in the ACC. Kloss has thrown out five of 13 attempted base stealers, and Grimm has tossed out eight of 22 attempts. Combined, the Irish have thrown out 13 of 36 attempted base stealers and the .639 stolen base allowed percentage is the lowest in the conference. Grimm also picked off a runner this season.
Getting Out of the Blocks
Notre Dame has scored 54 runs in the first inning of games this season, and 144 runs in the first three innings this season. When scoring in the first inning, the Irish are 17-4 this season and when scoring the first run of the game Notre Dame is 26-4 on the year. The Irish have hit seven of their 39 home runs in the first inning this season. The only other inning with as many home runs is the fourth inning.
Scoring in ACC Series
Notre Dame scored 36 runs in the three-game series with Georgia Tech. Its the most runs scored in a three-game ACC series in program history, outscoring the 35 that Notre Dame scored in a three-game series in Charlottesville in 2014.
The Irish scored 36 runs in a three-game series against Seton Hall as a member of the BIG EAST in 2010. The 12 runs per game in the series is the highest average runs per game in a conference series in since 2000 when Notre Dame average 12.5 in a doubleheader with Providence in South Bend.
Pitchers of the Week
Graduate student Alexis Holloway threw her third career no-hitter, and the second of the season to earn Pitcher of the Week honors. It marks the first time that an Irish pitcher has thrown two no-hitters in the same season since 2008.
Senior pitcher Payton Tidd was named ACC Pitcher of the Week, along with Boston College’s Susannah Anderson a week go. In two starts last Week, Tidd earned two wins, and threw a complete game in the 3-2 win over the sixth-ranked Northwestern Wildcats. In the series opener with Syracuse, Tidd threw 6.0 innings, striking out five and holding the Orange to two runs to earn her second win of the week.
National and ACC Player of the Week
Karina Gaskins had one of the most productive weeks in all of NCAA softball, leading the Irish to a 5-0 record and a three-game ACC sweep at Pitt. She finished the week 12-for-16 with a double, two home runs, eight runs scored and 11 RBI. She had at least one hit and one RBI in all five games, four of which were multi-hit and multi-RBI games.
Any Means Necessary
Offensive stand out Abby Sweet picked up right where she left off after a record-setting on-base percentage in 2021 (.537). She’s second on the team with a .497 OBP this season. (Gaskins – .575 OBP) Sweet owns a .397 batting average, drawn 11 walks and has been hit by 14 pitches. The 14 hit by pitches in 41 games ranks 15th nationally in HBP per game. Her .651 slugging percentage is second-highest among the Notre Dame regulars. (Gaskins – .802)
Pinch Hit Prowess
The Notre Dame bench has shined when its name has been called. The Irish are hitting .307 in pinch-hit appearances, going 23-for-75. Conversely, the Irish are holding opponents to a .140 average going 6-for-43. Joley Mitchell leads the bench squad, going 5-for-9 in pinch hit appearances. Rachel Allen, Sarah Genz, Mac Vasquez, and Jane Kronenberger each have three hits in pinch-hit appearances this season. Quinn Biggio leads the team with 12 pinch-hit at bats this season, earning a pair of hits. Bryn Boznanski, Allen, Mitchell and Kronenberger have homered in pinch hit appearances this season.
Working in TRANsistion
Emily Tran has appeared in 30 games this season, primarily as the pinch runner. In that role, she’s scored 13 times, and is 7-for-7 in stolen base attempts. She’s the primary speedster off the bench for the Irish.
An Extra Run
After averaging five runs per game in 2021, the Irish offense has upped that number to 6.37 per game this season, ranking 19th nationally and third in the ACC. Abby Sweet and Leea Hanks have each scored 43 runs, tied for 24th nationally in runs per game.
Top 25 wins
Against Top 25 teams, Notre Dame has earned a 5-3 record this season, three of those five wins have come against teams ranked in the top 10,
Against #21 LSU, the Irish rallied late, using a fifth inning home run from Payton Tidd to tie it, and Miranda Johnson drove in the game-winning runs in the seventh. Tidd shut the door as the Irish earned the 8-6 win.
Notre Dame followed that with a 9-2 win over then No. 9-Texas. A 7-run fifth inning paved the way for the first win over a top 10-nationally ranked opponent since beating No. 3 Florida State in Tallahassee in 2019.
The Irish added a top 10 win after knocking off No. 7 Duke at home. Notre Dame used a 3-for-3, 4 RBI performance from Karina Gaskins and got a dominant start from Payton Tidd. Tidd worked 7.0 innings and allowed just one hit in the 8-1 victory.
In a midweek matchup with #6 Northwestern, Tidd again shined in the circle. throwing a complete game, allowing just five hits and two earned runs. The Irish offense got a run early with a Kronenberger double and rallied for two in the sixth. Hanks drove in the game-winning run with a double.
The Irish took one of the three-game series with Clemson as Alexis Holloway no-hit the Tigers in the second game of the series. Notre Dame led in all three games entering the bottom of the seventh, surrendering a one-run lead in both the first and last games.
Record Setting Night
In the home opener against Detroit Mercy, the Fighting Irish scored 18 runs, tying a school record for runs scored and the largest margin of victory. The original record was set March 11, 1994 in an 18-0 victory over Robert Morris. Eight of nine starters had a hit and five players who didn’t start the contest registered one of the 18 hits. 15 different players scored a run in the victory.