Having originally been scheduled to play on March 5, then April 2, with both games cancelled due to rain, the Eastern Michigan University Eagles finally got a chance to test their mettle against their final Power Four foe of the season — the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
With a critical conference series against Kent State looming large in just a couple days, the Eagles did their best not to look ahead and put up a valiant effort against the Fighting Irish, falling short to the home team 12-10 despite a furious late rally down the stretch.
Eastern Michigan started off slowly and found themselves trailing Notre Dame by a score of 6-1 after just two innings. Devan Zirwas had put the green and white on the board courtesy of an RBI double that scored Logan Hugo.
The Eagles did not score again until the third inning, with two runs in the frame and an additional two runs in the fourth cutting the deficit down to one, leading into a scoreless fifth inning for both teams.
However, Notre Dame would catch fire at the plate in the bottom of the sixth. The Fighting Irish scored six runs that would ultimately win them the game and at the time increased their lead from just one run to a game-high seven runs by the end of the stanza.
Nevertheless, the Eagles would not go down without a fight.
The offense that was red-hot at the plate throughout Mother’s Day weekend in Mount Pleasant showed up in a big way over the final three innings with five runs being plated over that span.
Bruce Jellison’s sacrifice fly got the scoring started in the top of the seventh inning, with Logan Hugo homering in the eighth for his 10th deep shot of the season to cut the Eagles’ deficit down to five.
Brendan Kleiman’s two-run homer in the ninth inning gave Eastern Michigan even more hope for a comeback, with Connor Walsh hitting an RBI single to cut the road team’s deficit to two. But a Logan Hugo strikeout swinging would be the final nail in the coffin for the Eagles, their comeback attempt being thwarted just before completion.
Despite the game-ending strikeout, Hugo led the offensive efforts for the Eagles, going 3-5 with one home run, three RBIs and a stolen base. Devan Zirwas also contributed two hits and two RBIs to the stat sheet with Harrison Travis adding two hits as well.
With the win, Notre Dame improves to 30-19 (12-15 Atlantic Coast Conference) on the campaign, while Eastern Michigan falls to 19-27 (11-16 Mid-American Conference) in their final non-conference showing this season.
Next time, the Eagles will return home for their final conference series of the year, one that will determine whether they qualify for the MAC Tournament against Kent State from May 15-17. Viewers can catch all of the action live on ESPN+.
