Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball

Head Coach - Link Jarrett

Assistant Coach - Rich Wallace

Assistant Coach - Chuck Ristano

Volunteer Assistant Coach - Scott Wingo

Director of Operations - Sean Guite

Assistant Athletic Trainer - Scott Stansbury

Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for Olympic Sports - Kyle Jean

Also see: Frank Eck Stadium

Frank Eck Baseball Stadium, known by fans as “The Eck”, is the home baseball stadium for the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish baseball team. Eck Stadium is located on the southeast corner of Notre Dame’s campus in Notre Dame, Indiana. Opened in 1994, Eck Stadium is 14,211-square feet, has a capacity of 2,500, and cost $5.7 million to build.[8] The stadium has become a favorite among the Irish baseball team, and a sampling of teams from the May 7, 2006, edition of Baseball America’s top-25 poll showed that Notre Dame record-setting home attendance averaged ranked 11th-highest among those elite top-25 teams.[9] Since its construction, the stadium has hosted two NCAA Regionals, 1999 and 2001.[10]

Overview of Frank Eck Baseball Stadium at the University of Notre Dame

Plans to build the stadium were announced on June 7, 1991, stemming from a generous gift to the university by alumnus Frank Eck, and his company, Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc., of Columbus, Ohio.[9] His contribution to Notre Dame have totaled more than $35 million, including a $21 million gift in 2005 for the Eck Hall of Law, which is the fifth-largest gift in Notre Dame’s history.[11] Construction on the stadium finished in Spring 1994, and the first game was played on March 17, 1994, with a 5-8 loss against the University of Tennessee.

Eck Stadium includes spacious home and visitor locker-rooms, meeting rooms, and coaching facilities. Additionally, the stadium includes a spacious press box, located directly above home plate, which seats 25 staff and media members and has a panoramic view of Eck Stadium and other Notre Dame athletic facilities. At the 1995 Notre Dame alumni game, the University named Eck Stadium’s playing surface Jake Kline Field to honor the program’s winningest coach.[8]

The Eck Stadium has undergone several renovations and additions, with plans to expand in the future. In January 2000, a 9,000-square foot indoor hitting and pitching facility, located adjacent to the left-field line, was added to enable year-round practice.[9] In 2012, this facility got a major facelift, including a wall-to-wall synthetic turf floor, four full- and two half-batting cages, permanent pitching mounds within the tunnels, and an “Iron Mike” pitching machine with an automatic ball feeder.[9] This space is primarily used for pitching, hitting, and catching, while the team uses the Loftus Center for defensive fundamentals and base running.  Additionally, the playing surface of the Jake Kline field received an upgrade before the 2014 season. The surface transitioned from natural grass to the artificial surface FieldTurf, which covers the entire field.[9]

The Coach Pat Murphy Locker Room was added after the 2010 season. The locker room is located within Notre Dame’s Frank Eck Baseball Stadium and was included in the first major renovation endeavor since the stadium’s construction in 1994.[12] It was made possible through generous gifts from Daniel Murphy, David Murphy, Bert Bondi (‘67), Craig Counsell (‘92), and John Counsell (‘64), as well as other generous supports of Notre Dame baseball.[9]

The Coach Pat Murphy Rocker Room was designed to make the team space more efficient and improve circulation between the clubhouse, shower, restroom facilities, and the dugout.[12] A kitchenette and mudroom were added along with direct access to and from the dugout area. The space includes 36, 30-inch wood lockers, including four specifically designed corner lockers for the catchers. New flatscreen, high definition televisions and state of the art RightView Pro technology were installed as well.[12]

Also see: Cartier Field

The Cartier Field was a stadium in Notre Dame, Indiana which existed from 1900 to 1962. The field is named after Warren Antoine Cartier, who purchase 10 acres and donated it to the University for athletic purposes and paid for the lumber required to enclose the field.[13] Notre Dame decided the field should serve the needs of a variety of athletic endeavors such as bicycling, track, baseball, and football. The finished grounds contained a baseball diamond, two football fields, a quarter-mile banked track, a 220-yard straightway and grandstand setting for 500.[13] On May 12, 1900, the formal opening of Cartier Athletic Field featured a track and field championship tournament followed by a baseball game.

The field hosted the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team from 1900 to 1928. For more than 20 years after the football team moved out, Cartier Field remained the home of Notre Dame’s baseball and track and field teams. The field was re-established in 1962, and the baseball team began to practice nearby in the Jack Kline Field.

Carl Yastrzemski was recruited to play both baseball and basketball for the Fighting Irish after a record career at Bridgehampton School in Long Island. He only played on the Notre Dame freshman baseball team, which was not as competitive as he hoped. In 1959, he signed a minor league contract in excess of $100,000 for the Boston Red Sox in 1959. According to Notre Dame’s Scholastic, his departure from the program was unexpected, and Coach Jake Kline was pessimistic about the team’s future after Yastrzemski’s Red Sox contract.

While his Notre Dame career was short lived, he left a lasting impact on the Fighting Irish program. Freshman sports teams were phased out soon after to promote higher competition and avoid losing players to the major leagues. Notre Dame’s baseball team also became deeper and more successful following Yastrzemski’s departure.