Abundance of arms gives Notre Dame an edge

In high school baseball, it’s common for three or four pitchers to establish themselves as starters early in the season, and then combine to throw most of a team’s innings over the course of the year.

Notre Dame has gone away from that popular approach in recent seasons, and that’s again the case this year. Entering last week, the Dons had nine different pitchers who’d pitched in seven games or more, and nobody had thrown more than 22 innings. Among that group, eight players had an ERA below 3.00 — including three (junior Sam Ferri, senior Brandon Nowak and junior Will Porcaro) with an ERA under 1.00. The rotation helped the Dons (13-5) earn the No. 25 ranking in Prep Baseball Report’s Illinois poll last week.

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