Louisville rallies with three-run eighth to beat Notre Dame 8-7 and level ACC series

Late offense flips opener’s script as Cardinals respond in ACC play

LOUISVILLE — The University of Louisville baseball team evened its Atlantic Coast Conference opening series against Notre Dame with an 8–7 win Saturday night, using a three-run eighth inning to erase a two-run deficit at Jim Patterson Stadium.

The victory came one day after a high-scoring ACC opener in which Louisville surrendered a 14–11 decision despite scoring the game’s first six runs. Notre Dame’s surge in that opener was driven by a 10-run fourth inning, turning a comfortable Louisville lead into a deficit that the Cardinals could not fully overcome.

How Saturday’s game turned

Saturday followed a different arc. Louisville trailed 4–1 after three innings, then pieced together a methodical comeback to take a 5–4 lead through five. Consecutive two-out RBI singles in the fourth by Bayram Hot and Kade Elam narrowed the gap, and Griffin Crain’s two-run single later put Louisville in front.

Notre Dame moved back even in the sixth on an unearned run following a Louisville defensive error, then reclaimed the lead in the seventh on Parker Brzustewicz’s two-run double. That sequence put Louisville behind 7–5 entering the eighth and set the stage for the decisive rally.

The eighth-inning rally

Louisville opened the eighth with back-to-back singles from Crain and Hot. A groundout advanced the runners, and a passed ball brought Crain home to make it 7–6. Alex Alicea then tied the game with an RBI triple, and Tague Davis followed with an RBI single that pushed Louisville ahead 8–7.

Key eighth-inning sequence: passed ball (run scored), RBI triple, RBI single.

What the box score shows

• Final: Louisville 8, Notre Dame 7 (March 14, 2026).
• Louisville collected 15 hits; Notre Dame had 12.
• Crain finished with three hits and two RBIs; Hot had two hits and an RBI; Davis and Elam each drove in a run.
• For Notre Dame, Davis Johnson hit a two-run home run, and Brzustewicz had four RBIs, including the seventh-inning double.

Series context

The Saturday result leveled the three-game set at one win apiece and gave Louisville its first ACC win of the 2026 season. The teams were scheduled to decide the series in a rubber game Sunday afternoon (March 15, 2026) in Louisville.