May 26, 2000

STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) - Watching its ace pitcher blow a lead didn't faze Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish just answered Tulane's rally with a big inning of their own against star right-hander Aaron Heilman.

Matt Nussbaum's two-run single highlighted a five-run eighth inning and No. 3 seed Notre Dame defeated second seeded Tulane 8-4 Friday in the NCAA regionals.

``These kids are so resilient,'' Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri said. ``I just knew they would not give up.''

The Fighting Irish trailed 4-3 with two outs and none on in the eighth before five singles and three Tulane errors broke open a close game.

Tulane starter Jared Berkowitz retired the first two batters before allowing three straight singles. He said the 90-plus temperatures finally caught up to him.

``You never get used to the heat,'' said Berkowitz, who threw 116 pitches. ``I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tired.''

Notre Dame tied it at 4-4 on Brian Stavisky's second two-out RBI single that forced Berkowitz (12-4) to leave the game.

Brandon Belanger relieved and Nussbaum delivered a high chopper over the third basemen's head that made the score 6-4.

``Coaches try to preach to us to avoid 1-2-3 innings,'' said Nussbaum, who also made several key defensive plays making his first collegiate start at second base. ``We kept battling and strung a few hits together.''

Mainieri moved Nussbaum from the outfield to second to get Kris Billmaier's bat in the lineup. Billmaier started in left and went 3-for-4 and drove in a run.

The Fighting Irish scored two more in the eighth on two straight Tulane errors.

``We have to play better baseball than we did in the eighth inning,'' said Tulane coach Rick Jones, whose team will play an elimination game on Saturday.

Berkowitz allowed 11 hits, six earned runs and four walks in 7 2-3 innings.

Matt Buchmaier (4-2) pitched three innings of hitless relief for Notre Dame (44-16).

``We felt like if we were going to win games in this tournament our bullpen was going to have to do the job,'' Mainieri said. ``That's as well as he has ever thrown for us.''

With a 3-1 lead in the sixth, Heilman walked the bases full before Matt Groff's one-out single drove in two and tied the game.

Mickey McKee gave Tulane (37-21-1) a 4-3 lead with an opposite-field single to drive home Steve Shirley.

Heilman, considered a potential first-round pick in June's major league draft, had struggled in his last two starts allowing 12 earned runs and 19 hits in 12 innings. The right-hander appeared to have regained his good stuff in the early innings against Tulane.

Heilman held the Green Wave hitless through 3 1-3 innings before Conference USA player of the year Jake Gautreau made the score 2-1 with his 16th homer of the season. Heilman worked six innings, allowing five hits, four earned runs and five walks.

``I got behind a lot of hitters early and the pitch count started to get up there,'' said Heilman, who threw 118 pitches.

Notre Dame loaded the bases with none out in the first inning against Berkowitz and Jeff Felker and Billmaier hit consecutive sacrifice fly balls to give the Irish a 2-0 lead.

Stavisky's two-out RBI single in the sixth extended Notre Dame's lead to 3-1.

Notre Dame will play the winner of Friday's late game between host No. 1 seed Mississippi State and No. 4 seed South Alabama on Saturday. Tulane plays the loser of Game 2 in an elimination game Saturday.