Irish to face Gamecocks in Paris in 2023-24 season

Jean- m arc m alkowski dominated, winning 6-1. Freshman e van Lee and sophomore Yu Zhang also brought home a 6-4 win. s ingles came down to the wire, with the victor still in the balance until the final match concluded. m arc- m alkowski came through in the clutch, beating m att Pitts despite losing the first set. Fu and sophomore Jameson c orsillo also notched singles wins. h owever, the i rish were thoroughly defeated by Georgia Tech, dropping all of their matches. m eanwhile, the women’s team lost consecutive matches for the first time in almost a month. The state of Florida did not treat the i rish kindly, as they lost 4-1 to Florida s tate on Thursday and 5-2 to n o. 14 m iami on s aturday. The i rish were fantastic in doubles in both matches, however. s enior Page Freeman and sophomore m aria o livia c astedo see Tennis PAGe 12

By Observer Sports Staff

While many college basketball teams begin their seasons with a slate of home games against midmajor, unformidable opponents, n otre d ame women’s basketball will change things up to begin its 2023-24 campaign.

The i rish traveled to s t. Louis to take on c al in the first-ever c iti s hamrock c lassic. Playing in head coach n iele i vey’s hometown, the i rish dug themselves deep into foul trouble but gutted out a 90-79 win over the Golden b ears.

s o, the i rish will play another early-season neutral site game in 2023. This one, however, may have a little more intrigue.

First, it’s against s outh c arolina, which ended the regular season as the topranked team in the sport and has reached the s weet 16 in every full season since 2014, winning the national championship in 2017 and 2022.

Pitting two elite programs against each other early in the season is always going to garner excitement. d oing it in Paris, s ure enough, that’s exactly what the i rish and Gamecocks are doing. For the first time ever, the i rish women’s basketball team is leaving n orth a merica. i n fact, it’s the first time Paris will host an ncaa regular-season basketball game and comes right before the city will host plenty of highlevel basketball in 2024 as part of the s ummer o lympics.

France, takes the hype to an entirely different level.

“ n otre d ame is playing under the shadow of n otre d ame,” said i vey, according to a team press release sent out on Wednesday. “We are absolutely thrilled to be heading to Paris to participate in this historic matchup between two storied women’s basketball programs. i t’s always been my mission to break barriers and provide opportunities for my players to have life-changing experiences. Women’s basketball is on the rise right now and having this exposure continues to grow the game on an international platform.” b oth programs will look to start their 2023-24 campaigns strong after excellent seasons that failed to meet their championship aspirations. h andicapped by a slew of injuries, most notably a seasonending setback to sophomore guard o livia m iles that sidelined her for the entire acc and ncaa Tournaments, the i rish bowed out in the s weet 16 to m aryland in convincing fashion. s outh c arolina reached its third straight Final Four. b ut the Gamecocks were upset by i owa and its dominant guard c aitlin c lark, falling 77-73. a s of now, important details such as venue, broadcast network and tickets are not yet available. induced by brilliant pitching.

This will be the sixth meeting in program history between the two teams. n otre d ame beat the Gamecocks 9285 the last time they met back in n ovember 2017. The i rish are 3-2 alltime against s outh c arolina, including a perfect 3-0 on neutral sites.

Irish seek elusive sweep behind killer P’s overall, this will be notre dame’s ninth three-game series of the season. To this point, all eight have ended in a 2-1 count, as the irish have not swept nor been swept. but if there’s a time for notre dame to take three on the road, this might be it. The irish have beaten clemson five consecutive times for their longest

Paid a dverT isemen T active winning streak against an acc opponent. e xpect Putz - along with graduate shortstop Zack Prajzner and sophomore third baseman Jack Penney - to bother c lemson this weekend. Penney has grown into a solid leadoff hitter, holding a .791 o P s and a perfect 8-for-8 base-stealing mark. o ver his last six games, Penney is 9-for-27 at the plate with three home runs and seven runs scored. b ehind him, Prajzner enters on a five-game hit streak in which he’s gone 8-for-24 with a pair of homers and seven runs driven in.

Last year, n otre d ame swept c lemson in s outh b end, outscoring the Tigers 21-5. i n that series, first baseman c arter Putz and junior catcher d anny n eri enjoyed massive performances. Putz went 6-for-13 with a double, home run and 8 rbi n eri also raked, going 6-for-8 with a long ball and four runs scored in two games.

Putz has also been tremendously steady in the middle of the lineup, maintaining a batting average just below .300. The veteran has reached base safely in 13 of his last 15 games, collecting six doubles in the last nine.

Developing the ‘pen notre dame feels that it can win any series behind its three-headed pitching monster. Graduate student a idan Tyrell, junior Jackson dennies and sophomore Jack Findlay have pitched to a combined era of 2.34. dennies has stolen the show recently with a shutout streak now approaching 15 innings. The trio has been phenomenal, but a question still remains: what do the irish have behind them?

That concern has reared its ugly head in back-to-back weekends, as the i rish bullpen allowed six-run innings late to miss out on key wins against n orth c arolina and Pittsburgh. b ehind the big three, n otre d ame has only two regularly used pitchers with a sub-five era . They are freshman c aden s pivey (2.19) and graduate student Will m ercer (4.24).

Tracking the Tigers o ffensively, the Tigers don’t hit for much power (30 home runs) but handle the basepaths extremely well. They are 59-for-73 on stolen base attempts, while their opponents are just 13-for20. With two players - c am c annarella and b enjamin b lackwell - combining for statistically, c lemson’s pitching staff stacks up similarly to that of notre dame. however, the Tigers boast a much deeper inventory, with nine pitchers having thrown to an era between 1.90 and 4.50 in at least 10 innings. d uring its three-game win streak, c lemson’s staff has yielded a 1.33 era , which included a bullpen-heavy game on Tuesday.

31 steals, c lemson will put the pressure on n otre d ame defensively. c annarella is a bona fide leadoff hitter, carrying a .411 batting average to go with 10 doubles and 40 runs scored. s ophomore infielder b illy a mick was a major force in Tuesday’s win, homering, doubling twice and driving in four runs.

Last weekend’s rotation consisted of a ustin Gordon, ethan darden and c aden Grice, all of whom have started at least five games this year. i n addition to his 34 strikeouts, Grice also leads the team with eight home runs.

The Friday-s aturdaysunday series will have start times of 8:00, 4:00 and 1:00 p.m. acc network e xtra will carry all three contests.

Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu

By TYLER REIDY a ssociate sports editor

notre dame baseball (1713, 7-8 acc ) currently occupies fourth place in the acc’s atlantic division. o ver the next four weekends, the i rish will face the three teams sitting below them - plus national no. 7 v irginia. sitting just a game and a half out of second

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To the credit of the i rish, they responded with force in their midweek showdown on the road against b utler. n otre d ame dominated the b ulldogs, at one point amassing a 24-0 lead. Though b utler eventually got on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter, the 26-3 final scoreline was reflective of a motivated i rish squad.

The win also gave n otre d ame its second win away