MOBILE, Ala. – Senior Shannon Becker tossed the 40th solo no-hitter in Notre Dame history, and the 60th overall, against Maine Saturday at the Mardi Gras Classic on the campus of South Alabama. Notre Dame beat Black Bears 8-0 in six innings.
Becker’s final stat line was 6 innings pitched, 0 hits, 0 earned runs and 6 strikeouts. The only base runner to reach for Maine was a walk in the fourth inning. It was the first no hitter by an Irish pitcher since 2022 (Alexis Holloway, April 15, 2022 against Clemson). Becker lowered her ERA to 3.20 on the season.
As a team, Notre Dame didn’t allow its first hit until the third inning of the South Alabama game (8.1 innings).
The Irish totaled 19 hits on Saturday and stole six bases on the day.
Maine Recap
In the first matchup between the two programs in nearly 25 years, Becker got the start against Maine after tossing four innings yesterday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. She started off the day for Notre Dame with a 1-2-3 first inning.
The Irish put on traffic in the bottom half of the opening inning. Olivia Levitt, moving into the three-hole today, lined a ball into right center field to keep her bat hot this weekend. Addison Amaral walked after that, followed by a Paige Cowley hit by pitch to load the bases, but a Maine strikeout would get the Black Bears out of the jam.
Next time up, Notre Dame put more traffic on. Rachel Allen and Jane Kronenberger hit back-to-back singles, then advanced to scoring position after a perfect sacrifice bunt from Anna Holloway. With two outs, Mickey Winchell came through, delivering a liner over the shortstop’s head into left field to score the pair as the Irish took a 2-0 lead after two.
Becker continued to deal in the circle, not allowing a baserunner after three innings. The senior had five strikeouts after the first time through the Maine lineup.
Notre Dame added another run to the board in the bottom of the fifth. Caitlyn Early hit a sharp ground ball through the left side to reach first. After a fielder’s choice, Allen knocked a pitch into the right center for a single, but both runners would advance a base after an errant throw to put two in scoring position with one out. An RBI fielder’s choice from Kronenberger made it 3-0 Irish after five.
Becker came out and did her thing in the top of the sixth. The right hander got two fly outs and a pop up in the infield in what would be her final out of history.
The Irish got back-to-back baserunners to…