Baseball History
Kevin Hardy (left) was Notre Dame’s first three-sport athlete in the second half of the century (‘64-’65, also football, basketball) while Bob Arnzen (right) was accomplished both on the diamond and the hardwood.
Rick Chryst – former commissioner of the MidAmerican Conference – was one of the leaders of Notre Dame baseball in the early 1980s.
Notre Dame was a common face in the NCAA Tournament for 13 seasons, advancing to the postseason tournament five times in that stretch. The program then experienced its first major venue shift in 1977, relocating from old Cartier Field (just north of Notre Dame Stadium) to the east side of campus, in the area that later would be dubbed Jake Kline Field (north of the current Joyce Center). Tom Kelly and Larry Gallo shepherded the baseball program through the first 12 seasons following Kline’s retirement (1976-87). Notre Dame opened the decade of the 1980s by posting a 29-8 record in the 1980 season, highlighted by a 12-game winning streak late in the year. Despite the program’s many successes in its first 96 seasons, Notre Dame baseball entered a new level of excellence in the late 1980s. An ambitious young coach named Pat Murphy was hired to direct a program that had not tasted NCAA tournament action in nearly 20 years – and the Irish program responded with a string of 40-win seasons that spanned 16 years. Murphy’s first squad (39-22) posted 24 more wins than the previous team, with that breakthrough 1988 season representing the program’s best win percentage since 1982.
(from left) Second baseman Mike Moshier, shortstop Pat Pesavento and first baseman/outfielder Dan Peltier – pictured at South Bend’s Coveleski Stadium – were the veteran leaders of the 1989 NCAA tournament team.
Led by an assortment of talented players – including All-American/Academic All-American Dan Peltier – the Irish fashioned a memorable 1989 season. The highlight of 1989 came in the rainsoaked Midwestern Collegiate Conference Tournament, when Notre Dame rallied for four wins in one hectic, soggy day to claim the tourney title and earn the league’s automatic NCAA bid. The success of the Murphy era continued through the 1994 season, with the Irish coming excruciatingly close to advancing to the College World Series in both 1992 (at Miami) and ’93 (at Florida State).
Home Is Where the Heart Is Notre Dame baseball has called four primary facilities “home” for significant stretches in its 119-year history. The majority of the games in the first 85 years were held at Cartier Field (left), an area that currently consists of the quad stretching between Notre Dame Stadium and the Hesburgh Library. Irish baseball moved in 1977 to the other side of Juniper Road – just north of the Joyce Center – with games held on a facility later named Jake Kline Field (below left) in honor of the legendary coach (shown below, receiving bat). Notre Dame split time in the 1988-93 seasons at Coveleski Stadium (below right), South Bend’s minor-league facility, while Frank Eck Stadium (right) has been the home of Irish baseball since 1994.
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