Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 INSTITUTE, W. Va. -- The weather may have been cold, but the bats were hot in a high-scoring split in two games between Notre Dame and West Virginia State on Sunday.

Notre Dame (2-2) scored a 10-7 victory in the opener, and the host Yellow Jackets (2-2) battled back from a four-run deficit to take game two, 12-11.  The Sunday split results in the two teams halving their four-game, season-opening series.

[Game-1 Box | Game-2 Box]

With temperatures in the high 30s and a forecast of rain and/or snow showers, Sunday's action got underway one hour earlier than scheduled, at 11 a.m.  The Falcons got their offense cranked up early, too, as NDC scored nine of their 10 game-one runs in the first four innings of play.  In the nightcap, the Falcon offense was again a potent unit -- Notre Dame plated runs in four of the game's seven innings.  When game two ended -- amid snow flurries filling the late afternoon sky -- the Falcons had lost by one despite having had runners on second and third with no outs in the seventh.

“That was a tough way to end it,” said Interim Head Coach Len Barker.  “But a lot of new guys stepped up this weekend.  West Virginia State was a high-quality opponent to start off with.  So, we learned some things, picked up a couple of wins, and now we go from here to continue to grow as a team.”

Game One
Senior right-hander Andrew Hyde started and pitched well for NDC in the opening contest.  Bolstered by a 3-0 lead after the Falcons plated a trio of runs in the top of the first inning, Hyde cruised in his first outing of the season. The Toronto native got through four innings, allowing just two unearned runs on a mere two base hits.  Leaving the game with a 9-2 lead, Hyde collected six strikeouts, a total which ties a career single-game best.

That big early lead came courtesy Jesse Carriere and Pat Ross, who each notched their first home runs of the season -- Ross with a long ball in the third and Carriere with a 410-foot bomb in the fourth.  Ross walked twice in the game and was hit by a pitch two times.  He reached base in each of five plate appearances.

Freshman righty Jay Sperry pitched the final three innings of the game to log a save in his collegiate debut.  Sperry allowed five runs (three earned) while punching out four.  The Marysville, Ohio, product went into the seventh with a 10-4 lead, but a three-run home run off the bat of Eric Temple brought the final score to 10-7.

Game Two
In the second game, it was yet another home run that led to the Falcons opening up an early lead.  A Bryan Pyper two-run homer in the top of the first gave NDC and starter Tyler DeCrapio the early edge. DeCrapio was touched up for four runs in the bottom of the first, and the Yellow Jackets led, 4-2, through one.

The Falcons traded one run for WVSU's two in the second inning; that put the score at 6-3.  That was still the score prior to the top of the fourth, when Notre Dame would send 13 batters to the plate and push across seven runs.  The Falcons strung together four hits and three walks in the fourth frame.  In the midst of that rally was an Eric Mathews two-run double.

The home nine came right back, though -- in the bottom of the fourth, the Yellow Jackets scored six runs when they got to reliever Matt Fritz for five straight hits to start the inning.  That outburst gave WVSU the lead, 12-10.

NDC picked up an unearned marker in the sixth and then had themselves set up for more in the seventh when a Simon Davis walk and a Bryan Pyper single-and-error put runners on second and third with nobody out.  Then junior reliever Jordan Butcher set down the Falcons, one-two-three, with a pair of ground outs split by a strikeout.

With that, the Yellow Jackets pulled out what was a 13-hit, six-error victory that culminated with three straight out between falling snowflakes.

Pyper finished the second game 3-for-5 at the plate, with a home run and three RBIs.  Fellow newcomer Shane DeFranco went 2-for-4 with one run batted in.

Over the two games combined, WVSU scored 19 runs on 20 base hits, including four home runs.  The Yellow Jackets committed nine errors.  NDC plated 21 runs on 17 hits while being charged with seven defensive miscues.  Notre Dame drew 14 walks over the two games.

Getting his first collegiate starts in center field, junior Simon Davis went a combined 3-for-6 with four walks batting in the two-hole.

The Falcons are slated to play a three-game series at another West Virginia school -- Concord University in Athens, W. Va. -- next weekend (Feb. 25-26).


NOTES FROM NEST …

LONG-DISTANCE CARRIERE: Jesse Carriere's home run in game one marked the first of his career.  The junior catcher is no stranger to belting an extra-base hit now and then, however -- he had 10 doubles and a triple en route to batting .300/.415/.400 last season.  Carriere's home run came in his 198th career at-bat. … Pat Ross' homer in game one was his first since April 15, 2010, and the fourth of his career.  Bryan Pyper's round-tripper in game two marked the first of his career.

TENS MOMENTS: Sunday's double-digit scoring output in both games marked Notre Dame's first such doubleheader since April 25, 2010.  Plating 10 or more runs in both ends of a twin bill is something the Falcons have done now just six times in their history. …  Last year, NDC scored double-digit run totals just twice on its way to averaging 5.0 runs per game, the program's lowest single-season average in its seven years. ... Sunday's twin bill featured a combined 49 at-bats with runners in scoring position.  NDC had more than a third of thos in the nightcap, when Falcon batters combined to go 4-for-17 in such situations.

UNDONE BY ONE: Sunday's nightcap marked Notre Dame's first one-run game of the season.  Last season NDC went 8-3 in such games, and over the 2010 and 2011 seasons the Falcons went a combined 18-5 in one-run affairs.

WEST VIRGINIA POWER:  WVSU slugged seven home runs over the four games this weekend.  In 2011 the Yellow Jackets hit 31 homers, a total that ranked 43rd out of 252 NCAA-II programs.

ODDS & ENDS: NDC batters sported a combined .429 on-base percentage when leading off innings over the four-game series at WVSU. ... West Virginia State batted a robust .444 (16-for-36) over the weekend with runners in scoring position. ... With three home runs in 122 at-bats in their first four games, the Falcons are already within one round-tripper of their anemic 2010 total of four (four homers in 1,240 at-bats). ... NDC (13 errors) and WVSU (14) combined to post 27 errors ove the four games. ... Andrew Hyde moved into second place on the NDC career strikeouts list with his half-dozen punch-outs on Sunday.  Hyde has now whiffed 92 batters in his career.  Matt Kidd (2005-06) is the program's all-time leader, with 134 strikeouts. ... With four walks in the series, Pat Ross now has 61 for his career.  That moves him past Dustin Taulbee (58 walks, 2005-08) into second place on the Falcons' career list.  Ross scored a team-high seven runs over the two days in Institute, W. Va.  He needs just five more runs scored to become the third NDC player to reach 100 for a career.