Irish baseball to end regular season at Boston College

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - The Notre Dame baseball team is headed to Massachusetts to close the books on its 2023 regular season.

The Irish will face the Boston College Eagles in a three-game series that’s set to begin Thursday evening. The series opener and finale (Saturday) will be played on Boston College’s campus, but Friday night’s game will be played at historic Fenway Park as part of BC’s 11th annual ALS Awareness Game.

It marks the second game at a major league stadium this week for the Irish, who lost to Northwestern in extra innings on Tuesday night at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.

It’s not a bad change of scenery for the guys who just finished up final exams, but head coach Shawn Stiffler is hoping it’s a fresh start for them, too.

“I think it’s a nice spark here at the end, but we have big things in mind for the end of our season here, so we didn’t want this to be the highlight,” Stiffler said after the loss to Northwestern. “It’s certainly a highlight, but it’s going to be nice to head up to Boston now and play a big series and have that game on Friday night at Fenway.”

The upcoming series is an important one for the Irish, as the margin of error is diminishing in terms of being selected to play in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Notre Dame and Boston College share the same record in conference play at 14-13, but the Eagles are ranked No. 22 nationally and hold an overall record of 32-16. The Irish, meanwhile, are 29-20.

First pitch on Thursday is set for 5:30 p.m. Friday night’s game at Fenway is slated for 7 p.m., while Saturday’s finale is scheduled for 12 p.m.

Copyright 2023 WNDU. All rights reserved.