CLEARWATER, FL - On a wild day that saw the Irish win a game in thrilling fashion, Notre Dame baseball was eventually knocked out of the Big East tournament by top seed Louisville, with a 7-6 loss in the team's 2nd meeting of the day.

Despite trailing 5-0 early, Notre Dame rallied to get the tying run to 3rd base, and the would-be winning run on 2nd base in the bottom of the 9th inning.

That's when Louisville All-American Justin Marks struck out Ryne Intlekofer, stranding both runners, and ending the game.

Notre Dame must now wait and see whether or not it has done enough to earn an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament. The Irish have an RPI rating of 45, own five victories over the top-50 and 12 over the top-100 in the RPI.

Earlier in the day, Notre Dame beat Louisville 6-5 to force a second game.

The Irish broke open a 3-3 tie with three runs in the top of the ninth inning. After Cardinals' reliever Gabe Shaw retired sophomore Mick Doyle, sophomore Cameron McConnell singled and junior David Mills followed with a go-ahead RBI triple to give Notre Dame a 4-3 lead.
Junior A.J. Pollock followed with another triple to give the Irish a 5-3 lead. The three-bagger fell about 10 feet shy of a two-run home run which would have given the All-American candidate the first cycle by an Irish player since Alec Porzel on May 7, 2000.

Pollock settled with his second triple of game and cruised home on sophomore Golden Tate's bloop RBI single giving Notre Dame a much-needed three-run cushion, 6-3.

Pollock finished with his second four-hit game of the tournament. The centerfielder went 4-for-5 with a run scored and RBI. Pollock had nine total bases, which tied for the Notre Dame single-game high this season.