May 2, 2008

PITTSBURGH – The Notre Dame Falcons ended their regular season in style Friday with a 7-1, 10-2 sweep of Carlow University in Pittsburgh. The twin bill also got going in style with an historic base hit in game one.

The Falcons swept the Celtics for the second time in less than a week; NDC downed the Celtics in a pair of Campus Field games last Sunday (April 27). The Falcons hung double digits in runs on Carlow in three of the four games between the two schools in 2008. Friday's sweep runs Notre Dame's current winning streak to eight games, and it raises their season record to 29-11.

Program history was made in the second inning of game one when NDC's Anna Ball (Jr/Bellville, OH) ripped a home run to give the Falcons a 5-0 lead. The homer, her second of the game, marked the 200th hit of Ball's career; she becomes the first NDC player to reach the 200-hit plateau. The Bellville, Ohio, native reached base seven times in the two games, upping her season on-base percentage to .647.

In the first game, Notre Dame banged out three home runs (two by Ball and one by Jill Gigliotti) and scored seven runs over the first three innings. That was more than enough run support for freshman starter Meredith Harbarger (Akron, OH).

Harbarger yielded three straight base runners in the third (on a walk and two singles) - other than that, the Akron native pitched a near-flawless game. Harbarger went the route (seven innings), allowing a run on four hits and a pair of walks. She struck out six.

Senior Katie Lapczenski (Willoughby Hills, OH) picked up where Harbarger left off when she took the ball in game two. Lapczenski pitched five scoreless innings before yielding solo runs in the sixth and seventh. By that point, the NDC offense had given Lapczenski a 5-0 lead.

Notre Dame collected 14 hits in the nightcap. Evelien Vonk (Sr/Rotterdam, The Netherlands) had three hits. Gigliotti smacked another home run and Stephanie Tartaglione (Jr/Euclid, OH) went 4-for-5 with two doubles and a triple.

Ball, for her part, was walked three times in the second game. For the afternoon, she reached base seven times.