Notre Dame baseball team caps impressive opening weekend with 11-3 romp over No. 9 LSU

Junior Eric Gilgenbach went 3-for-4 and slugged a three-run homer and a grand slam as Notre Dame whacked ninth-ranked LSU, 11-3, Sunday to take two of three games in the season-opening series at Baton Rouge, La..

Gilgenbach’s three-run blast to right-center field in the top of the fourth put ND up 3-1, and his grand slam to left field in the top of the ninth put the game out of reach, extending the Irish advantage to seven.

Freshman center fielder Spencer Myers finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored for ND (2-1), which won its first road series against a ranked team since 2007.

"This whole weekend, we just totally were outclassed: playing, coaching, just everything," former ND coach and current LSU coach Paul Mainieri told the Baton Rouge Advocate. "They came down here very prepared, very tough.

"Everything they did, they did extremely well. I've got to give them a lot of credit. They came down here and took it to us."

Irish starter Cameron Junker went 3 1/3 innings, giving up one run on a hit and two walks with a pair of strikeouts. Joe Boyle picked up the win by getting one out in the fifth and Andrew Belcik picked up his first save of the season with 2 1/3 innings of work to close it out.

Notre Dame 000 303 005 — 11 11 0

LSU 001 010 100 — 3 5 0

Cameron Junker, Brandon Knarr (4), Brian Morrell (4), Cameron Brown (5), Joe Boyle (5, W, 1-0), Jack Sheehan (6), Andrew Belcik (8, S, 1); Todd Peterson (L, 0-1), Daniel Cabrera (5), Devin Fontenot (6), Nick Bush (8), Taylor Petersen (9), Brandon Nowak (9).

2B: Cole Daily (ND), Jake Johnson (ND), Beau Jordan (LSU).

HR: Eric Gilgenbach 2 (ND), Jordan (LSU).

Records: Notre Dame 2-1, LSU 1-2.