Notre Dame qualifies for 3rd College World Series in program history

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - The Notre Dame baseball team is back in South Bend after topping the Tennessee Volunteers in Super Regionals to qualify for its third-ever College World Series appearance—and its first in 20 years.

There was a pretty good crowd at Frank Eck Stadium on Monday night to welcome back the Irish. Now, they get just a couple of days to rest and recover before heading to Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series.

Head Coach Link Jarrett reflected after Sunday’s game just what makes this team so special.

“I thought we had an Omaha team in 2020,” Jarrett said. “I thought we had an Omaha team last year, and we have one this year. And it wasn’t an easy pathway to get there. There’s no team I’ve ever coached that’s more build for this moment than these guys. The versatility of the team, the unselfishness of the pitching staff, the way they engage in anything they feel like might need to be done to win a game, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The official schedule for the first two days of the College World Series were announced Monday night. Notre Dame will face Texas in the second game of the tournament on Friday night at 7 p.m. EDT on ESPN.

The Irish and the Longhorns are also in a bracket with Oklahoma and Texas A&M. It’ll be a double-elimination tournament between these four teams, with the winner heading to a best-of-three final, where they’ll face the winner of the second bracket that includes Arkansas, Auburn, Ole Miss, and Stanford.

Fun fact: Notre Dame is the only school this academic year to play in a New Year’s Six bowl game, a March Madness game (men and women), and a College World Series.