This Week: Notre Dame College will host Lake Erie College at Mercy Health Stadium in Avon, Ohio for a three-game weekend series. Friday Mar. 4 will mark NDC's 2022 home opener, as a doubleheader is slated for 1:00 and 3:30 p.m. The two sides would wrap up the series with a traditional nine inning contest scheduled for Saturday Mar. 5 at 1:00 p.m.
 
Records: NDC begins the week at 0-7 on the young season, as LEC is currently 1-2. Notre Dame concluded the 2021 season at 17-23 (14-18 MEC), while Lake Erie was 8-29 (6-24 GMAC).
 
Coaches Corner: Len Barker is in his 11^th season at the helm of the NDC baseball program for the 2022 season. Barker has a career record of 200-250. Landon Hutchison is the head coach for Lake Erie College.
 
Rankings: Neither team is ranked according to the National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll.
 
Series History: NDC is 8-8 all-time when facing LEC, dating back to their first meeting back in 2008. The Storm won the most recent meeting between the two teams, 4-3 in ten innings back on Mar. 9, 2021.
 
Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame will happily return home after beginning the 2022 season with back-to-back road trips. Most recently, NDC was swept by Ohio Dominican on Feb. 26 and 27. The Falcons fell 7-3 and 7-4 on Saturday, while dropping 8-3 and 6-5 in extra innings on Sunday.
 
All-American Ben Ross highlights this Notre Dame offense with a .429 batting average through the seven games. The shortstop is the heart and soul of this Falcon team by leading the squad in hits (12), doubles (4), extra base hits (7), home runs (3), slugging percentage (.893), OPS (1.362) and on base percentage (.469).
 
Kyle Espineli and Alec Mendoza have enjoyed solid starts to their 2022 campaigns as well. Espineli is second in batting average (.368), slugging percentage (.579), OPS (1.008) and on base percentage (.429). Mendoza is currently third in batting average (.286), while leading NDC in runs driven in (9).
 
Nick Farrell and Aaron Miller have also contributed to the Notre Dame offense. Farrell features some pop in his bat with two home runs, five RBIs and a .231 batting average. Miller got his bat going on Sunday vs. ODU with four hits, four RBIs and one home run.
 
On the bump, Falcon ace Austin Mora has carried the bulk of the load for NDC. Mora leads the team in innings pitched (11.0) and strikeouts (12). The redshirt senior has surrendered a 4.91 ERA, .220 opponent batting average, while flashing a WHIP of 1.27.
 
Alex Dicke and Cameron Kern have paced the NDC bullpen through two series. Dicke leads Notre Dame in ERA (3.37) and opponent batting average (.143) over his 2.2 innings pitched. Kern posts the second-best ERA on the team (4.50) during his three appearances this season.
 
As a team, Notre Dame is slashing .243/.320/.403 (AVG/OBP/SLG) on the season, with 11 doubles, two triples, seven home runs and 31 RBIs. On the mound, NDC tossed 53 innings, posting an 8.49 ERA, 2.11 WHIP, .339 opponent batting average, to go along with 47 strikeouts and 36 walks allowed.
 
Noting the Storm: Lake Erie took one of three games during their opening series at Southern Indiana on Feb. 26-28. The Storm fell 12-4 on Saturday, dropped 8-3 on Sunday and then reigned victorious 6-3 on Monday.
 
Mason Eicher and Robert Helt lead the Storm in batting average at .429 this season, by both hitting 3-7 during the opening series. Mark Ross (.364), Graham Solak (.308) and Israel Espinosa (.286) pace the team with four hits each. In terms of RBIs, Solak (4), Eicher (3) and Espinosa (2) are hitting in the clutch for the Storm.
 
Robert Helt and Jon Poppy have been the workhorses for Lake Erie so far at 4.2 and 4.1 innings pitched respectively. However, both Helt and Poppy have been roughed up, posting ERAs of 5.79 and 6.23, and allowing opponents to hit .313 and .278 respectively. Jay Gural and Nick Taylor were huge for LEC in relief during the series, tossing 1.2 and 2.0 innings of scoreless baseball respectively. The two pitchers also held Southern Indiana hitters to .167 and .143 from the plate.
 
As a team, Lake Erie features a slash line of .226/.305/.255 through three games, with three doubles and ten runs batted in. On the bump, LEC has 25 innings pitched, posting a 7.93 ERA, .313 opponent batting average, to go along with 20 punch outs and 31 bases on balls.