Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. -- Wind chills in the 30s and breezy damp conditions are tough enough on an offense. Facing those conditions against a Tusculum (Tenn.) Pioneer pitching staff that boasted a 3.55 ERA and 7.6 strikeouts per nine innings in last season make that breeze blow colder still.

Those were the conditions that saw Notre Dame drop its first two games of the 2013 season on Friday, losing 9-1 and 10-1 to Tusculum, a program that went 48-10 in 2012 and a team that came into the weekend ranked No. 23 in the nation (Collegiate Baseball Coaches' Poll). Over the two games, strong Pioneer pitching held Notre Dame (0-2) to two runs on nine singles. Tusculum (3-2) hurlers struck out 17 batters, while walking just three on the day.

Pat Ross (two hits, walk) was NDC's top batter in the two games held at TC's Pioneer Park.

Game One
In the opener Notre Dame scored its one and only run early. Senior center fielder Pat Ross reached on an error in what marked the first plate appearance of NDC's season. Ross then came around to score on a one-out RBI single by Jesse Bartle.

Senior right-hander Bryan Pyper started for the Falcons, and he held Tusculum in check over the first two innings. But in the third, the home nine strung together three singles, an NDC error, a hit batsman and a wild pitch into a four-run frame. Three of those runs were unearned, but the damage was done, staking TC starter Taylor Rakes to a 4-1 lead.

Rakes would allow just one single over the fourth, fifth and sixth innings combined, holding Notre Dame at one run. Meanwhile, the Pioneers kept at it on offense. Tusculum got two runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and one more in the sixth in running its lead to 8-1. Rakes left after seven, having allowed just one unearned run on three hits. He fanned nine while walking just one.

Pyper was chased after the fourth. He allowed six of the Pioneers runs, though only two were earned. Pitching out of the NDC bullpen in game one were Dan Poskocil and Taylor Neville.

Tusculum scored its final run in the eighth. After a Jarlys Mejia single in the sixth, 11 Notre Dame batters were set down by Rakes one Pioneer reliever (John Clarke).

Game Two
Freshman left-hander Tanner Scott toed the slab for the Falcons in game two. And Scott did not disappoint in his first collegiate outing. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound southpaw hung zeroes in each of his first three frames. Along the way he was staked to a 1-0 lead. (That run was scored in the third, when sophomore catcher Austin Creer walked and bit-by-bit circled the bases without the benefit of a hit, eventually scoring on a balk.)

That balk was issued by TC starter T.J. Miller, a junior right-hander who logged a 3.61 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 52-1/3 junior college innings in 2012. Miller last 4-1/3 on Friday, being lifted for junior right-hander Billy Sivyer in the fifth. The one run Miller yielded in the third would be the only nick on his pitching line on the stat sheet. He struck out five batters and was up, 2-1, when he exited in the fifth.

That 2-1 Pioneer lead came courtesy a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth. Both were off Scott and both were unearned after the Trey Drewery reached on a fielding error charged to Jarlys Mejia. After Drewery reached, Scott was touched up for the two runs when Tusculum put together two singles, two walks and a passed ball. That would be the young left-hander's final stanza; he yielded just those two singles and four walks in what was a 76-pitch night.

In the fifth the Pioneers broke the game open by plating four runs on four hits, all coming after reliever Kevin Bedhun had struck out the first two batters in the inning.

In the sixth the Falcons broke down a bit, committing three errors which led to four more runs for the Pioneers. That closed out the scoring, with NDC unable to muster more than three singles over their last four innings. The Falcons had four errors in game two and were outhit, 8-6. TC's Vinny Ferrara went 3-for-4, with two RBIs and three runs scored.

Over the two games combined, Notre Dame was tagged for seven errors.

With its loss in Friday's opener, Notre Dame is now 4-5 in nine season openers. NDC had won four straight season openers, dating back to 2009. NDC and TC are slated to play the back half of the four-game set on Saturday with a noon doubleheader.