Notre Dame Baseball Misses Out on NCAA Tournament

The Notre Dame baseball program has a lot to be proud of after finishing 32-21 this season, but let's get something straight ... the Irish weren't snubbed, but rather undeserving of making the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA announced all 64 teams that qualified for the NCAA Tourney on Monday, and unsurprisingly, Notre Dame wasn't one of them.

Does that mean this season wasn't a success? Absolutely not. Head Coach Shawn Stiffler has only been the head coach at Notre Dame for three seasons, and even though the Irish really struggled in conference play, they did win 32 games, the most by Stiffler during his tenure.

There's been some rumblings about whether or not Notre Dame would or should get in the NCAA Tournament after winning eight of their last nine regular season games and 16 of their final 20, but after losing an extra-innings heartbreaker to Boston College in the first round of the ACC Tournament last week, it was clear Notre Dame simply didn't belong.

The Irish started the season strong -- winning eight of their first nine games and 12 of their first 13 non-conference games -- but Notre Dame struggled once conference play started. Notre Dame lost its first five conference games, dropped its first six series, and finished ACC play 14-16, leaving Notre Dame with a minuscule shot at making the NCAA Tournament.

Obviously, if Notre Dame won the ACC Tournament, it would have received an automatic berth, but for the Irish to earn an at-large bid, they needed to make it to the ACC Tournament Semifinals at the very least.

That didn't happen, and now Notre Dame's season is done. Hopefully, Notre Dame's underclassmen play well this summer in the various summer collegiate wooden bat leagues available in the United States -- Cape Cod Baseball League, Northwoods League, New England Collegiate Baseball League, etc. -- and come back even better next season.

If not, next season could have an eerily similar feel to the last three.