Notre Dame Coaching News

Dave Schrage was fired as baseball coach back in June. Sure, he wasn't going to be the next Paul Mainieri or even Pat Murphy. But still, a 119-104-1 record in four years just didn't cut it.

Notre Dame considered a number of candidates for the job, including members of Mainieri's current LSU staff. (Rumor has it that former Irish backstop Javy Lopez was among those names.) In the end, they settled on Boston College head coach Mik Aoki.

Aoki posted a 108-114-1 record at BC, eerily similar to Schrage's mark at Notre Dame. But Aoki did so with the most northern team in the very competitive ACC. He also made a regional appearance in 2009, something Schrage failed to do in his four years with the Irish.

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Muffet McGraw, National Champion, 600 game winner, famous Muffet-hopper, was named to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame during the recent WNBA all star game. A well-deserved honor for a coach who has brought the Irish women's cagers into national prominence.

Notre Dame Baseball Alumni Mini-Update

• Former head coach Paul Mainieri quietly released a book, The Mainieri Factor. I say "quietly," because I came across it accidentally a few weeks ago despite the fact that it was published a year ago.


• Brant Ust has apparently hung up the cleats on a nine-year minor league career. Ust currently lives in Ann Arbor and joined the University of Michigan as a volunteer assistant coach. Ust played almost 250 games at the AAA level, but was never suited up in a major league uniform.


• Meanwhile, current Notre Dame outfielder AJ Pollock continues to rack up the accolades. He was recently named the 10th best player in the country by The College Baseball Blog, and Project Prospect's Lincoln Hamilton ranks Pollock as the second best draft-eligible hitter.

Notre Dame's AJ Pollock Named Cape Cod League MVP

Notre Dame outfielder AJ Pollock was named MVP of this summer's Cape Cod League season. After the school year, top college players will keep their skills sharp by playing in wooden bat summer leagues. The Cape Cod is the preeminent summer wooden bat league. The full writeup on Pollock can be found on UND.com.

Notre Dame Alumni in Professional Baseball

Copying a page from my book (and using the same picture of Aaron Heilman no less), UND.com published an up-to-date list of Notre Dame baseball alumni in affiliated ball.

I like to follow the Irish alums - along with some other local area kids - on FirstInning.com. If you sign up for a free account, you can "track" any player in affiliated baseball, and FirstInning.com will present the previous night's stats for all of your tracked players on one page. Click on a player, and you'll get everything from basic stats to batted ball charts. A very useful site.

Notre Dame Baseball in the Big East Tournament

Notre Dame's baseball team begins the Big East tournament against South Florida on Tuesday. The game is at 8:00 PM Eastern, and it appears the only coverage you're going to get is through the UND.com gametracker.

The Irish will enter the tournament with revenge on their mind against USF. Notre Dame looked to be on the bubble for one of the last spots in the NCAA Regionals before being swept by the Bulls in the last weekend of the regular season. Could a long run in the conference tourney put the Irish back on the road to Omaha? The journey begins Tuesday at 8:00.

Notre Dame Baseball vs St John's on ESPNU

If you have ESPNU and find yourself bored with the NFL draft today (or if, say, your team has no Day 1 draft picks), be sure to check out the ND baseball team in their only nationally televised regular season game. The Irish will play St John's at 3:30 PM Eastern on ESPNU.


Senior SS Brett Lilley
Courtesy UND.com