McGuinness: Why you should cheer for your friends’ sports teams

Andrew McGuinness sports editor

510 miles from where it happened, I stared into my phone camera in perfect Jim h alpert deadpan style. “ m ontreal wins it!” exclaimed announcer b rendan b urke in the background. The m ontreal c anadiens, the lowest seed in the 2021 s tanley c up Playoffs, had just cashed in on a clear-cut two-onnone in overtime to beat the Toronto m aple Leafs in Game five of their firstround series. And I, a die-heart, massive, ridiculously obsessed Philadelphia Flyers fan, was sad. s teve (real last name of Glynn) is best known for his Leafs Fan r eaction (LF r ) series, in which he uploads a video recapping games in hilarious (and often outraged) fashion. h e has made a video for almost every single game that the m aple Leafs game have played since the beginning of the 2007-08 season. That’s over 1,300 videos alone on a channel that has garnered over 60,000,000 views since its inception. b ut there has been one basic thing missing amidst the avalanche of content d angle has produced: a video about the m aple Leafs winning a playoff series. While my Flyers and Phillies have been off snapping long droughts of their own in recent years, the Leafs have come agonizingly close to a breakthrough an agonizing amount of times. b ut it’s ok, because the m aple Leafs earned opportunities for revenge by taking the b ruins to seven games in 2018 of gas following three shutout innings. With the bases juiced and nobody out, b osch came in and slammed the door on n orthwestern, striking out two and inducing a flyout.

When I was first getting into hockey in 2016, I stumbled upon the YouTube channel of s teve d angle.

In 2013, they became the first team in nh L history to blow a three-goal lead in the third period of a game seven to the b oston b ruins.

After scoring smallball runs in the third and sixth innings, n otre d ame brought out the big bats in their final two at bats.

First, sophomore third baseman Jack Penney hit his second oppositefield home run in as many games. The two-run poke restored Penney’s team lead at six homers and pushed the Irish into a 10-0 lead. s pence added on with his first career big fly in the eighth, concluding a 6-3 stretch for n otre d ame at Frank e ck s tadium.

With the win, n otre d ame now sits at 15-11 overall, while n orthwestern fell to 3-20.

Up next: Pittsburgh

The Irish will now hit the road for the first time in almost three weeks to visit the Pittsburgh Panthers (13-13, 4-6 Acc ). Pitt has lost four of its last seven after dropping a series at d uke last weekend. Last m ay, the Panthers lost two out of three against n otre d ame in s outh b end.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Pitt has not hit a ton relative

SAINT MARY’S GOLF

to the rest of the Acc (.264 batting average). s itting top three in the conference for both walks (168) and strikeouts (257), the Panthers play to the three true outcomes.

n oah m artinez leads the Pitt offense, holding a 1.090 oP s to go along with seven homers and 28 rb I.

n ext to him, c J Funk has launched nine long balls — four of them in Acc play. b eyond those two, three more Panthers have started every game this season.

Jack Anderson, AJ n essler and s ky d uff each have at least 27 hits, 14 rb I and 18 walks. Pitt rarely runs, holding up the conference rear with 13 stolen bases.

The Panthers also carry an earned run average just below seven, conceding an opponents’ batting average near .300. r eliever b ryan nash has Pitt’s lowest individual er A at 3.72. To put that into perspective, n otre d ame has four regular arms with better marks. s tarting pitching has plagued the Panthers more than anything. Their two regular starters, Jack s okol and Kyle m osley, possess a combined er A near 7.00.

Thursday and Friday’s games will get underway at 3:00 p.m. at Pitt’s c harles c ost Field. s aturday’s first pitch will fly at 1:00 p.m. Acc n etwork e xtra will carry all three contests.

Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu