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INDIANAPOLIS – The Butler baseball team will travel to South Bend on Tuesday to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Frank Eck Stadium. The Bulldogs went 3-3 last week and were perfect at home (2-0).
 
GameDay
Butler at Notre Dame – 5 PM
 
Scouting Notre Dame
The Fighting Irish are 12-9 overall and 3-1 at home. Head Coach Shawn Stiffler joined the program in July of 2022 after a successful stint at VCU. Stiffler recently guided ND to a historic series win over No. 2 Louisville. Notre Dame won 4-3 and 5-4, before taking a 2-1 loss in the getaway game. It was the first-ever home series win over Louisville in Notre Dame history.
 
Carter Putz and Zack Prajzner are two players to keep an eye on in the Irish lineup. Putz leads the team with a .289 batting average. He has two doubles and four home runs on the year to lead the team with 16 RBI. Prajzner also has 22 hits in 21 games for Notre Dame. He leads the team in doubles (7) and runs scored (17).
 
On the mound, Notre Dame could start David Lally Jr., Radek Birkholz, or Matt Bedford. Lally Jr. started the midweek matchup last week against Valpo with the Irish winning 8-4. Lally Jr. tossed the first 2.1 innings in that game and the win would go to Sammy Cooper. Cooper has eight appearances this season and is 2-0 with a save. Carter Bosch and Will Mercer are also productive out of the bullpen. Each arm has pitched 10 innings this year and has two saves.
 
Last Meeting vs. Notre Dame
The Fighting Irish hosted Butler last year on April 5. BU scored two runs in the top of the first inning, but were defeated by the final score of 5-2. Jack Findlay earned the win while Alex Voss was hit with the loss. Findlay and Jackson Dennies each threw multiple innings against Butler in the game. Those two student-athletes are now weekend starters for Notre Dame.
 
Small Ball
Butler and Notre Dame seem to share a philosophy when it comes to generating runs. Notre Dame currently has 12 sacrifice bunts, one more than BU with 11. The Irish rank 48th in the NCAA in sac bunts and lead the ACC. TJ Williams is the individual team leader with four. The Bulldogs rank 60th in the NCAA and rank second in the BIG EAST. Billy Wurch ranks 21st in the NCAA with a team-best five sac bunts.
 
Last Week
The Bulldogs went 3-3 last week with wins over Northwestern (3-2), Eastern Michigan (9-7), and Cincinnati (8-5). Jake DeFries, Carter Dorighi and Joey Urban started in all six games and all hit over .300 for the Bulldogs. Kollyn All and Kyle Van Liere hit home runs last week while Urban and Billy Wurch recorded triples. On the mound, Jon Vore, Nick Miketinac and Dawson Taylor all picked up wins. Aaron Barokas led the team with two saves and Lukas Galdoni led the team with two starts.
 
Hitting Streaks
Joey Urban, Kyle Van Liere and Garret Gray all have three-game hitting streaks heading into the Notre Dame game.
 
Fantastic Freshman
Joey Urban leads the team in batting average (.286), slugging percentage (.538), runs scored (16), hits (26), RBI (17), doubles (5), triples (3), home runs (4), and total bases (49).
 
Get Two
The Bulldogs have had a player hit a double in four-straight games. They have hit seven total during that stretch to give them 25 on the season. BU opened the 2023 campaign with 13 doubles over the team's first eight games.
 
Get Out of Here
The Bulldogs hit multiple home runs in a single game for the first time this season at Cincinnati. Kollyn All pushed Butler past the Bearcats with a solo home run in the fifth, followed by a game-winner in the eighth. All's three-run home run came on the first pitch of the at-bat and broke a 5-5 tie.
 
Up Next
Butler will play a three-game series against Eastern Illinois this weekend. The two teams will come together in Charleston on Saturday for a doubleheader that begins at Noon. The series will shift to Indianapolis on Sunday with BU hosting EIU at 2 PM. That contest will stream live on FloSports.com.