Congrats to the players and Coach Aoki. When Pat Murphy left, I thought ND was cooked. Who is this Manieri guy? Then I got spoiled. A CWS for a northern school? I'll expect it. Now, I enjoy the fight in the Fightin' Irish

Going into last year Aoki was still a major question mark.

Few(er) errors on the field and base paths. I finally was able to get the stars to align with the kids sports schedules to catch Friday and Saturday's games. I generally try to make 4-8 home games a year or more if I can. I was really impressed with the improvement in defense. It helps that the players are physically better athletes (at least they look that way), but also mentally they looked a lot sharper.

It was so very frustrating to watch a few years back when there were so many little league sort of errors going on out there. This team is not only making the plays they are supposed to, but they're also making some outstanding plays because they're just good defenders.

We lost plenty of early games to fairly middling opposition, and it sounds like we were making a lot of mental mistakes. That would be a very good sign if those things are being corrected.

.. two to Santa Clara.

ND also struggled in one run wins against Gonzaga, Brown and Niagara.

The team has improved and new guys have stepped up.

In series vs big name opponents. FSU, LSU, and. NC.

if we'd played three against Miami rather than the single game we lost 10-2. That's one of only two losses in our last 13 games.

This is a big week for us, starting today at Michigan State (it's 0-0 in the 5th).