ND stuns Vols to reach Series
Freshman Jack Findlay threw five shutout innings in relief and back-to-back home runs by catcher David LaManna and Jack Brannigan in the seventh sparked Notre Dame to a stunning 7-3 victory over No. 1 overall seed Tennessee in the championship game of the Knoxville Super Regional on Sunday.
Notre Dame (40-15) will be making just its third College World Series appearance. The Fighting Irish’s other trips came in 1957 and 2002.
Findlay (6-2) worked out of a jam after entering the game in the bottom of the fifth inning with nobody out, a run in and a runner on second, trailing 3-1. Findlay held the Volunteers in check from there, allowing a single and two walks, while striking out four. He ended the game with a double play.
Findlay’s efforts on the mound gave Notre Dame the opportunity to rally.
Carter Putz doubled off Volunteers starter Chase Burns (8-2)
with one out in the top of the seventh and scored on LaManna’s two-out shot to right field to tie the game, 3-3. Brannigan followed with a go-ahead shot to left-center on a 1-2 pitch.
Findlay retired the side in order
and Notre Dame added three insurance runs in the eighth.
Camden Sewell hit Brooks Coetzee with a pitch to open the inning. Spencer Myers’ sacrifice bunt moved Coetzee to second. Ryan Cole reached first and
Coetzee held on a throwing error by Vols third baseman Trey Lipscomb. Kirby Connell replaced Sewell and the runners advanced on a sac bunt by Jared Miller. Putz hit the first pitch he saw for a two-run double and Jack Zyska singled in Putz to cap the scoring. All three runs were unearned.
EAST GERMANY’S WORLD CUP CAPTAIN DIES
Bernd Bransch, who captained East Germany at its only World Cup appearance in a symbolic Cold War victory over West Germany, has died. He was 77.
Bransch’s former club Hallescher FC said in a statement Sunday that he had died on Saturday following “a long, severe illness.”
Bransch was East Germany’s equivalent of the charismatic West German star Franz Beckenbauer. Both men captained their national teams and both played as a sweeper, sitting deep in defense with space to start counterattacks.
When they met at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, it was Bransch’s team that came out the surprise winner, beating West Germany 1-0 with a goal from Jürgen Sparwasser. Both teams qualified from the first group stage, but East Germany was eliminated in the next round while West Germany won the tournament with a 2-1 victory over the Netherlands in the final.