Adversity lit the fire under catcher Carson Tinney and surging Notre Dame

The full-circle irony framing college baseball’s perhaps most improbable late-May storyline isn’t lost on Carson Tinney, who’s the undeniable face of the Notre Dame baseball team’s uncanny surge into NCAA Tournament relevance.

And perhaps an enduring turning point for the coach Shawn Stiffler Era as well.

For now, the sophomore catcher and the Irish (32-20) are projected in the 64-team field in D1baseball.com’s latest projection with more work to do this week in its final NCAA precursor, the ACC baseball tournament in Durham, N.C. The goal is to provide a little more girth to their résumé as well as protect against a potentially shrinking at-large pool of teams brought on my upsets in other conference tourneys.

Both Notre Dame and potential second-round opponent Virginia are listed among the last four teams included in the field.

To get to the Cavaliers (32-17), who received a first-round bye and are seeded sixth, the 11th-seeded Irish must get past 14 seed Boston College (26-28) on Tuesday night at 9 EDT (ACC Network). The ACC tourney switched from an early-round pool-play format to a 16-team, single-elimination template this year.

The top four seeds receive double-byes into the Thursday/Friday quarterfinals. Seeds 5-8 get byes into Wednesday’s second round. The bottom eight seeds, including Notre Dame, would have to win five games in six days to claim the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

But right now 11 of those 16 teams are projected in the NCAA field.

It all starts for Notre Dame with a team that nudged the Irish into undisputed possession of last place in the ACC standings in mid-April (4-14), by taking two of three in Brighton, Mass., and giving the Irish a losing overall record as well (16-17) and a trajectory for another lost season.

A story arc Notre Dame has since incinerated by going 16-3 since blowing a 5-0 lead in a 6-5 loss at BC on April 11, then squandering a 3-1 advantage two days later in the weather-rearranged series finale and a 4-3 ND loss.

“I, personally, am excited, and I know a lot of the guys on the team are,” Tinney told Inside ND Sports in a phone interview from Durham, “just because we were pretty unhappy about how the series went against them. We know we are a better team than them and we just want to show it.”

And then show it against a Virginia team that the Irish didn’t face in the ACC rotation of opponents in 2025, and then third-ranked and 3 seed North Carolina (39-12) on Friday night if the Irish can string a couple of wins together — two tourney victories likely the minimum required for eventual NCAA Tournament inclusion.

But there’s more to BC for Tinney, ND’s leader in batting average (.351), on-base percentage (.500), slugging (.766), home runs (17). RBIs (53) and walks (33) and who is among the ACC leaders in those categories as well.

It was against BC as a freshman last April that Tinney hit an inside-the-park home run, his second homer overall of that season, in an Irish win. Two days later, he belted a grand slam against the Eagles. Moments later, his season ended early in a celebration gone awry, tearing the ACL in his left knee.

“It was just a home run celebration, got excited, ran out of room and got unlucky,” he said, “but that’s a part of it.”

Tinney underwent surgery a few weeks later, after final exams. The 6-foot-3, 220–pound Castle Pines, Colo., product finished with a slash line of .268/.397/.500 with three home runs, including one as his first college hit, and nine RBIs.

As he rehabbed in a remarkably fast timeline for ACL tears (seven months), Tinney began the transformation into the national headliner and 2025 Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist he is now.

“It’s everybody’s nightmare to get injured, especially when you’re doing what you love,” he said. “It was a blessing in disguise, for sure. It really gave me a lot of time to take in the game for what it is and learn, not only on the physical side of the game, but also on the mental aspect of the game.

“I think it was a really good opportunity for me to kind of grow more as a leader and as a character on the team. It gave me the opportunity to learn and, honestly, realize how much love I do have for the game.

“It happens. You take things for granted and that really set in stone what I have and what I have to be grateful for. And it’s a blessing every day to go do what I do.”

And after the 2025 Boston College series, Tinney started doing it at even a higher level. And his Irish teammates followed suit.

“What shifted for me was I just made a couple of adjustments with my swing that helped me a lot,” Tinney said. “I was having a lot of hard outs, but mainly into the ground. I had a lot of groundball outs, which hitting the ball into the ground usually doesn’t do much good.

“So, I made a couple of adjustments to try to get the ball in the air, and since then it’s been working well. So, not complaining.”

The Irish completed their 16-of-19 run by taking two out of three on the road this past weekend at Miami in a critical ACC series for résumé-building. Tinney had home run No. 16 of the season, a solo shot, to break a 2-2 tie, then a three-run blast — his 17th — as the Irish turned game 3 into a 12-2 rout.

Only five players in Notre Dame history have hit more home runs in a season than Tinney’s 17, led by Niko Kavadas’ 22 in 2021. He's also a defensive force, throwing out an ACC-leading 16 would-be base stealers.

“Honestly, what changed for our team in April was we stopped pressing so hard for success and just kind of let the game do its thing,” Tinney said. “There’s a lot of give and take with the game of baseball.

“You can have your best game and still go out there and lose, so just kind of trust in the process, stop pressing so hard to have success on the field. But just trust in our work and what we’ve been doing since we got here this fall.”

Tinney has one more season after this one in college baseball before he becomes eligible for the MLB Draft after the 2026 season. And he’s relishing the opportunity to make this one end in storybook fashion.

“Every kid in the world that plays baseball wants to go play in the Major Leagues, so that’s definitely the goal,” he said. “I came here with that goal in mind. I didn’t want to waste any opportunity I was given to try to make that dream come to a reality.”

And suddenly there’s another dream to chase right in front of him and another reason to feel good about sticking with his November 2021 commitment to the Irish after head coach Link Jarrett left for Florida State following ND’s 2022 College World Series run.

“Notre Dame is a special place. It makes the academics and athletics hard to pass up,” Tinney said. “I kept my word, because I enjoyed the people I met along the way, other recruits on my visits and players on the team. I really enjoyed the people. I still do.

“And now we have a chance to do something special.”

At Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C.

(All Times Eastern)

FIRST ROUND

Tuesday, May 20

Game 1: 9 seed Miami (31-23) vs. 16 seed Cal (22-30), 9 a.m. (ACC Network)

Game 2: 12 seed Virginia Tech (30-24) vs. Stanford (27-24), approx. 1 p.m. (ACC Network)

Game 3: 10 seed Louisville (35-20) vs. 15 seed Pitt (27-26), approx. 5 p.m. (ACC Network)

Game 4: 11 seed Notre Dame (32-20) vs. Boston College (26-28), approx. 9 p.m. (ACC Network)

SECOND ROUND

Wednesday, May 21

Game 5: 8 seed Wake Forest (36-19) vs. Miami/Cal winner, 9 a.m. (ACC Network)

Game 6: 5 seed Clemson (41-15) vs. VaTech/Stanford winner, approx. 1 p.m. (ACC Network)

Game 7: 7 seed Duke (36-18) vs. Louisville/Pitt winner, approx. 5 p.m. (ACC Network)

Game 8: 6 seed Virginia (32-17) vs. ND/BC winner, approx. 9 p.m. (ACC Network)

QUARTERFINALS

Thursday, May 22

Game 9: 1 seed Georgia Tech (39-16) vs. Game 5 winner, 3 p.m. (ACC Network)

Game 10: 4 seed NC State (33-18) vs. Game 6 winner, approx. 7 p.m. (ACC Network)

Friday, May 23

Game 11: 2 seed Florida State (37-13) vs. Game 7 winner, 3 p.m. (ACC Network)

Game 12: 3 seed North Carolina (39-12) vs. Game 8 winner, approx. 7 p.m. (ACC Network)

SEMIFINALS

Saturday, May 24

Game 13: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, 1 p.m. (ACC Network)

Game 14: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner, approx. 5 p.m. (ACC Network)

CHAMPIONSHIP

Sunday, May 25

Championship Game: Semifinal winners, Noon (ESPN2)

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