Purdue Fort Wayne
NOTRE DAME
Fighting Irish Blank Mastodons, 5-0
4/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 23, 2008
Fort Wayne, IN - The Notre Dame Fighting Irish capitalized on four IPFW errors to shutout the Mastodons, 5-0 on Wednesday night at Memorial Stadium.
The Irish only outhit IPFW, 10-7, but three of those hits came in a first inning rally that plated three.
Notre Dame got RBI's from center fielder A.J. Pollack, Jeremy Barnes, and Billy Boockford. Those three runs chased IPFW senior starter Ben Boehne after on two-thirds of an inning.
The Mastodons turned to sophomore reliever Matt Ransbottom to stop the bleeding, and Ransbottom answered the call.
In the third, Ransbottom got the leadoff hitter to fly out to left. He also induced two fly balls by the next two batters and should have been out of the inning, 1-2-3. However, the Mastodons dropped both routine fly balls to extend the inning.
Boockford made them pay with a two-run double to left center, making it 5-0.
Those would be the final runs of the game as Ransbottom and fellow relievers Sam Walker and Matt Antos kept Notre Dame off the board the rest of the way.
On the flip side, Irish starter Ryan Sharpley worked out of a pair of jams early. He left with the 5-0 lead after six innings. He gave way to Steven Mazur in the seventh and Tony Lanford in the eighth.
Sharpley gave up three hits over six complete, striking out six Mastodons and walking three for his third win of the season (3-1). Mazure gave up a hit in his only inning of work, and Langford gave up three hits in the combined shutout.
IPFW shortstop Mark Carden, center fielder Jared Davis, and right fielder Garrett Segraves each had a pair of hits for the Mastodons.
Boehne took the loss (1-2).
Boockford was 4-5 with three RBI for Notre Dame (27-10-1).
With the loss, IPFW falls to 9-25-1. They return to Summit League play on Friday afternoon, hosting Centenary at 3:00 p.m.
~Dons~
