The Official #1 Tennessee vs Notre Dame Super Regional Games Thread (Fri 6/10 6PM EST ESPN 2) ( Sat. 6/11 2PM EST ESPN ) (Sun. 6/12 1PM EST ESPN)

#502
#502
VolPack22 said:
I hate to break it to them but our bullpen isn’t just Joyce. In fact, he’s not even the best one in there if we are being completely honest. Pitching is a lot more than slinging it 105mph. Our whole pitching staff of major contributors has a sub-3 ERA. Our bullpen is the reason we won our regional, outside of the late game explosions. The majority of posts I’ve seen show we are not underestimating ND and understand they have played like a top 10 team. Maybe they are the ones underestimating our guys?
Click to expand...
YEP. Only an uninformed party thinks this bullpen is a liability. Joyce's velocity is amazing, but Walsh, Connel, Mabrey, Sewell, McGlauphlin & the rest will shut ND down.
 
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#503
#503
Vitello and Anderson will have these guys ready. We have to play loose but focused.
The Irish arms have not faced a lineup that can beat you 1-9, like we can. You have zero breaks in this Tennessee lineup and no chance to take a breath, when you’re on the mound, facing them.
We’ve got this.
GBO!!
 
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#510
#510
From this morning's newspaper. All about the pitching & defense for the remainder of our journey.


Tennessee struggled, at times, against Campbell and Georgia Tech's starting pitchers with top-tier talent. Notre Dame has a pair of potent pitchers in John Bertrand (9-2, 2.27 ERA) and Austin Temple (4-1, 3.46) who could give the Vols problems.

Bertrand was spectacular in the regional-clinching game against Texas Tech, allowing one run in 7⅔ innings.

Notre Dame could quell Tennessee's hot offense in a manner similar to Campbell's Cade Keuhler and Georgia Tech's Zach Maxwell. The Fighting Irish will make or break on the mound with a low-scoring offense that totaled 11 runs in three games in the Statesboro Regional.
 
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#512
#512
TN_gal said:
Here's what I've been able to gather about Notre Dame. I've split my post into two parts:

Part I: When scouting our next opponent, I'm always curious as to what they (in this case, Notre Dame) has to say about Tennessee. I think its helpful to know their perspective.

Notre Dame HC Link Jarrett:

"This again but better offense," said Jarrett of what it will take to defeat Tennessee in a best-of-three series in Knoxville. "We have to be better offensively. We're going to have to play in all phases of the game and control our emotions because it's going to be Starkville-esque like last year. We dealt with 15,000 fans. This is going to be very similar and all parts of your game have to be on point. You have to force the issue a little bit and try to pressure them into some things.
"We'll be prepared for that. That doesn't always mean you win. But the preparation...(assistant coaches) Rich Wallace and Chuck Ristano prepare the team with the details as well as anybody I've ever been around. When these guys walk on the field, it's hard to gauge it when you watch as an observer. Those guys do the hard, detailed work to prepare the team and then we take it and try to push the right buttons. Clearly, it's worked well."

Source: NCAA Baseball Tournament 2022: Notre Dame coach Link Jarrett shares first thoughts on No. 1 Tennessee


From an Irish Sports Daily trusted “source”:
  • “What makes Tennessee so deadly ... Tennessee tries to absolutely intimidate its opponents," "Some younger teams are not used to this and could fold in that ballpark. Tennessee batters will scream at Notre Dame's pitchers while running to first base. They will bat-flip like it's wiffle ball and try to bully opponents. It's important for Notre Dame to keep its composure and let Tennessee know they will not be intimidated."

  • "Notre Dame has a core group of veteran players who have been through many environments over the last four to five years," "I still believe Notre Dame is one of the few teams in the country that can go in there and win. Link (Jarrett) will have a great game plan and Tennessee may underestimate how good Notre Dame is while looking forward to Omaha. Notre Dame will have to play its usual great defense and not have a poor defensive game like the first game in Starkville last year."

  • “Notre Dame can take two of three by hanging around until the 5th or 6th inning and getting to the Tennessee pen," stated the source. "To me, the pen, aside from RHP Ben Joyce (who throws over 100 mph), it's Tennessee's weakness. It's not overpowering.”

  • "Notre Dame's styles of play gives them a great chance to win the series. Notre Dame will have to limit strikeouts against Tennessee's starters and then steal bases. Tennessee really struggles to throw runners out. Notre Dame's offense sets up great for this."

  • "Notre Dame's pitchers will have to pitch to all five areas of the zone and keep hitters off-balance, "They [ND] will have to pitch inside and not let Tennessee get comfortable looking for pitches away all game. Some of Tennessee's hitters really struggle with off-speed pitches, so Notre Dame can't rely on fastballs the whole game. "The key will be locating. Velocity will not be enough."
Source: Button-Downed Notre Dame Must Ignore Rocky Top Rowdies

Part II: Notre Dame scout

ESPN's Mike Rooney on Notre Dame (from his 6/7 Tuesday interview on Tony Basiiio's Show):

'They were better last year. Niko Kavadas is gone and Tanner Kolhlhepp is gone. There is not one position where you would take a Notre Dame player over a Tennessee player. Tennessee is better at every position. Notre Dame's edge is age. They're Old. They play a cerebral band of baseball ... These guys are in grad school. 8 of 9 Starters are graduates. I did a senior day game there and the field was full of graduates.
  • On ND starting pitching "trickery": Lefty John Michael Bertrand ...24 years old ...started game 1. 7 hour rain delay ... threw one inning. 20 pitches. Took Sat off and Sunday he balled out. He went 7/2/3 innings ... 9 hits 7 ks 0 walks. He's a transfer from Furman. He matriculated to Notre Dame after Furman's baseball program was a Covid casualty. 6th year senior. Uses his brain to get outs.
  • Austin Temple: (redshirt graduate) In regional vs Ga southern 5/2/3. 4 hits 4 walks ... 4 runs 8 k's. RHP ... He uses his stuff to keep people off balance. He has a really nice curveball.
  • ND's bullpen: Has power arms. They have 3.87 staff ERA
  • ND's offense and approach: Hits .296 as a team. 'The sum of the parts is greater than the whole'
  • 'They'll bunt. They'll run. They'll hit and run. They'll delayed steal. You name and they're going to try it. They'll do anything they have to do to get to Tennessee. They look like a men's league team the way they approach offense. Link Jarrett is very creative with his offense in 2022. They pull out all the stops because they have to.'
  • Coach Jarrett will not coach afraid. He's going to do everything in his power with his limited roster to get out of Knoxville with two wins. If Notre Dame gets too far behind in a game, which I think could happen ... They will punt on a game if need be.'
  • ND is a veteran team with a few players left from a group that pushed Mississippi State (in Starkville Super Regional) to a three game limit last year.
Source: The Tony Basilio Show




VQ's Ben McKee preview on Notre Dame: VolQuest - Previewing Tennessee's opponent in the Knoxville Super Regional: Notre Dame


My thoughts on this weekend's ND / Tennessee matchup: ND is an experienced, veteran team that has been in this situation last season in the Starkville Super Regional and they gave the Bulldogs all they could handle. They are a detail oriented team and Coach Jarrett has a creative, different approach. They will have a detailed scout on our team and will try to exploit all of the our weaknesses. I expect them to throw everything and the kitchen sink at us because of the CWS berth at stake. I also suspect The Fighting Irish will play with a chip due to being snubbed as a Regional host. They will be looking to make a statement. It will be a dogfight this weekend.

Of course, I think our guys have the depth, talent, and experience to go toe-to-toe with The Irish. Our advantage is talent and depth, but our lineup must have better plate discipline (competitive ABs and pitch recognition; don't fall into swinging at junk pitches), much better defense than last weekend, and not make assumptions about getting to ND's bullpen. I think our lineup's experience against Campbell's Kuehler and GT's Maxwell last weekend helps.

Our pitchers need to keep throwing strikes. I think we'll be fine from a starting pitching standpoint if Blade pitches like he did against Alabama State and Dolly bounces back (I think he will).
Click to expand...


Awesome preview 👆🏻🤙🏻💯
Thank you for putting in the work!!
I’m pumped up to whoop some Irish ☘️
 
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#513
#513
imw8n4u said:
Finally had a chance to get caught up on this thread. I see a lot of talk about pitching, but should we be concerned about the throwing errors from Lawson, or was that just one bad night?
Click to expand...

I think that was one bad weekend from Lawson. He's been pretty solid overall. With that said, our defense has to be MUCH better this weekend.
 
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#520
#520
TN_gal said:
Notre Dame has a core group of veteran players who have been through many environments over the last four to five years," "I still believe Notre Dame is one of the few teams in the country that can go in there and win. Link (Jarrett) will have a great game plan and Tennessee may underestimate how good Notre Dame is while looking forward to Omaha. Notre Dame will have to play its usual great defense and not have a poor defensive game like the first game in Starkville last year.
Click to expand...

Notre Dame is a fantastic team, and there is much I am concerned about ahead of this weekend.......but, the one thing I am NOT concerned about is our guys "looking ahead" to Omaha and not taking them seriously. Whoever said this hasn't scouted our team properly. I am confident our sights are entirely focused on the Fighting Irish. You don't play 60+ games, get to the Super Regionals, and then not take your opponent seriously when you are one-step from Omaha.

If anything, our guys would be the first to admit we played arguably our worst baseball of the past month in the Knoxville Regional, so they'll be hoping to make a statement that we aren't that team.
 
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#521
#521
TN_gal said:
Here's what I've been able to gather about Notre Dame. I've split my post into two parts:

Part I: When scouting our next opponent, I'm always curious as to what they (in this case, Notre Dame) has to say about Tennessee. I think its helpful to know their perspective.

Notre Dame HC Link Jarrett:

"This again but better offense," said Jarrett of what it will take to defeat Tennessee in a best-of-three series in Knoxville. "We have to be better offensively. We're going to have to play in all phases of the game and control our emotions because it's going to be Starkville-esque like last year. We dealt with 15,000 fans. This is going to be very similar and all parts of your game have to be on point. You have to force the issue a little bit and try to pressure them into some things.
"We'll be prepared for that. That doesn't always mean you win. But the preparation...(assistant coaches) Rich Wallace and Chuck Ristano prepare the team with the details as well as anybody I've ever been around. When these guys walk on the field, it's hard to gauge it when you watch as an observer. Those guys do the hard, detailed work to prepare the team and then we take it and try to push the right buttons. Clearly, it's worked well."

Source: NCAA Baseball Tournament 2022: Notre Dame coach Link Jarrett shares first thoughts on No. 1 Tennessee


From an Irish Sports Daily trusted “source”:
  • “What makes Tennessee so deadly ... Tennessee tries to absolutely intimidate its opponents," "Some younger teams are not used to this and could fold in that ballpark. Tennessee batters will scream at Notre Dame's pitchers while running to first base. They will bat-flip like it's wiffle ball and try to bully opponents. It's important for Notre Dame to keep its composure and let Tennessee know they will not be intimidated."

  • "Notre Dame has a core group of veteran players who have been through many environments over the last four to five years," "I still believe Notre Dame is one of the few teams in the country that can go in there and win. Link (Jarrett) will have a great game plan and Tennessee may underestimate how good Notre Dame is while looking forward to Omaha. Notre Dame will have to play its usual great defense and not have a poor defensive game like the first game in Starkville last year."

  • “Notre Dame can take two of three by hanging around until the 5th or 6th inning and getting to the Tennessee pen," stated the source. "To me, the pen, aside from RHP Ben Joyce (who throws over 100 mph), it's Tennessee's weakness. It's not overpowering.”

  • "Notre Dame's styles of play gives them a great chance to win the series. Notre Dame will have to limit strikeouts against Tennessee's starters and then steal bases. Tennessee really struggles to throw runners out. Notre Dame's offense sets up great for this."

  • "Notre Dame's pitchers will have to pitch to all five areas of the zone and keep hitters off-balance, "They [ND] will have to pitch inside and not let Tennessee get comfortable looking for pitches away all game. Some of Tennessee's hitters really struggle with off-speed pitches, so Notre Dame can't rely on fastballs the whole game. "The key will be locating. Velocity will not be enough."
Source: Button-Downed Notre Dame Must Ignore Rocky Top Rowdies

Part II: Notre Dame scout

ESPN's Mike Rooney on Notre Dame (from his 6/7 Tuesday interview on Tony Basiiio's Show):

'They were better last year. Niko Kavadas is gone and Tanner Kolhlhepp is gone. There is not one position where you would take a Notre Dame player over a Tennessee player. Tennessee is better at every position. Notre Dame's edge is age. They're Old. They play a cerebral band of baseball ... These guys are in grad school. 8 of 9 Starters are graduates. I did a senior day game there and the field was full of graduates.
  • On ND starting pitching "trickery": Lefty John Michael Bertrand ...24 years old ...started game 1. 7 hour rain delay ... threw one inning. 20 pitches. Took Sat off and Sunday he balled out. He went 7/2/3 innings ... 9 hits 7 ks 0 walks. He's a transfer from Furman. He matriculated to Notre Dame after Furman's baseball program was a Covid casualty. 6th year senior. Uses his brain to get outs.
  • Austin Temple: (redshirt graduate) In regional vs Ga southern 5/2/3. 4 hits 4 walks ... 4 runs 8 k's. RHP ... He uses his stuff to keep people off balance. He has a really nice curveball.
  • ND's bullpen: Has power arms. They have 3.87 staff ERA
  • ND's offense and approach: Hits .296 as a team. 'The sum of the parts is greater than the whole'
  • 'They'll bunt. They'll run. They'll hit and run. They'll delayed steal. You name and they're going to try it. They'll do anything they have to do to get to Tennessee. They look like a men's league team the way they approach offense. Link Jarrett is very creative with his offense in 2022. They pull out all the stops because they have to.'
  • Coach Jarrett will not coach afraid. He's going to do everything in his power with his limited roster to get out of Knoxville with two wins. If Notre Dame gets too far behind in a game, which I think could happen ... They will punt on a game if need be.'
  • ND is a veteran team with a few players left from a group that pushed Mississippi State (in Starkville Super Regional) to a three game limit last year.
Source: The Tony Basilio Show




VQ's Ben McKee preview on Notre Dame: VolQuest - Previewing Tennessee's opponent in the Knoxville Super Regional: Notre Dame


My thoughts on this weekend's ND / Tennessee matchup: ND is an experienced, veteran team that has been in this situation last season in the Starkville Super Regional and they gave the Bulldogs all they could handle. They are a detail oriented team and Coach Jarrett has a creative, different approach. They will have a detailed scout on our team and will try to exploit all of the our weaknesses. I expect them to throw everything and the kitchen sink at us because of the CWS berth at stake. I also suspect The Fighting Irish will play with a chip due to being snubbed as a Regional host. They will be looking to make a statement. It will be a dogfight this weekend.

Of course, I think our guys have the depth, talent, and experience to go toe-to-toe with The Irish. Our advantage is talent and depth, but our lineup must have better plate discipline (competitive ABs and pitch recognition; don't fall into swinging at junk pitches), much better defense than last weekend, and not make assumptions about getting to ND's bullpen. I think our lineup's experience against Campbell's Kuehler and GT's Maxwell last weekend helps.

Our pitchers need to keep throwing strikes. I think we'll be fine from a starting pitching standpoint if Blade pitches like he did against Alabama State and Dolly bounces back (I think he will).
Click to expand...


Thanks for putting this together.

The by the numbers look by RTI s a good read on stats. ND is a good ACC team and their stats against ACC competition is good. Shame they're not playing an ACC team.

By the Numbers: Tennessee's Super Regional Opponent - Notre Dame | Rocky Top Insider
 
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#522
#522
WillisWG said:
Thanks for putting this together.

The by the numbers look by RTI s a good read on stats. ND is a good ACC team and their stats against ACC competition is good. Shame they're not playing an ACC team.

By the Numbers: Tennessee's Super Regional Opponent - Notre Dame | Rocky Top Insider
Click to expand...

You're welcome! Thanks for sharing the link to the RTI ND stats article. 👍🏼I agree that ND is a good ACC team. They will certainly test our guys, but I think our guys welcome the challenge. Should be a competitive series.
 
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#523
#523
TheMookieMonster said:
Notre Dame is a fantastic team, and there is much I am concerned about ahead of this weekend.......but, the one thing I am NOT concerned about is our guys "looking ahead" to Omaha and not taking them seriously. Whoever said this hasn't scouted our team properly. I am confident our sights are entirely focused on the Fighting Irish. You don't play 60+ games, get to the Super Regionals, and then not take your opponent seriously when you are one-step from Omaha.

If anything, our guys would be the first to admit we played arguably our worst baseball of the past month in the Knoxville Regional, so they'll be hoping to make a statement that we aren't that team.
Click to expand...

Exactly! I'm also not concerned that we are overlooking anyone from here on out. The differences between the remaining 16 teams are small. Just look at last year. Notre Dame went into The Dude and played Mississippi State toe-to-toe. And of course, MSU won at Omaha.

The key is to be peaking in June. And unfortunately, last weekend was truly sloppy for us. But, I do think it was more mental than physical. The positive is that we survived to fight another day.
 
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