Adley Rutschman was not surprised when she checked her phone after Monday’s game and saw a message from Gunnar Henderson. When he opened it to find the voice memo, he expected the friendly trash talk that had been going on between the pair of Orioles for days.
Henderson was committed to Auburn before being drafted by Baltimore. Rutschman starred at Oregon State. And while the Tigers and Beavers were locked in an NCAA Tournament Super Regional matchup over the past week, the two have gone back and forth.
So Rutschmann checked out the voice memos from Henderson.
“It was just him laughing,” Ratshman said.
With the College World Series field finalized, the Orioles’ clubhouse doesn’t have many players with direct ties to the teams headed to Omaha, Nebraska. Many were drawn from high schools or colleges in the lower order compared to the likes of Oregon State, an annual powerhouse.
But for Henderson, Ratsman, outfielder Kyle Stowers and first baseman Trey Mancini, one eye is peeking at the phone – or listening to updates from the crowd – as their college schedules reach the last eight.
During Sunday’s game in Kansas City, many fans turned yellow as Mancini stood at first base, offering an update on Notre Dame’s quest to beat No. 1 seed Tennessee. Fighting Irish were successful, pulling off a major update that got Mancini pumped for his old team.
“Obviously, I’m focused on my game, but when there’s an update screaming, I’ll listen to it,” Mancini said. “I was definitely overjoyed — extremely happy — to hear that. And it was especially lovely this came up against a Tennessee team that definitely played this year with a certain style and flair.”
The coaching business has grown since Mancini left Notre Dame in 2013. But he has developed relationships with the staff there, and pitching coach Chuck Ristano – one of Mancini’s holdovers at the time – threw him during last year’s home run derby. Mancini said he spoke to Ristano on Sunday to congratulate him.
As Link Jarrett arrived as Notre Dame’s new coach in 2019, Mancini also became close with him, and he was impressed with how Jarrett changed the schedule in a short amount of time.
“I don’t know how he did it. It’s unbelievable,” Mancini said. “Getting people to play baseball in South Bend, Indiana isn’t always easy. It is getting cold. We don’t play home games for like a month in a season. There are a lot more attractive schools to visit in the South. But the fact that he’s recruited so much great talent and they all seem so bought-out and they really look like they play for each other, play for the university, I like the way they play. Is. It’s really fun to follow and I’m definitely proud of them.”
Mancini reached out to Jarrett on Sunday as well, hoping the coach would send a message to the players for her.
“Just said, ‘Tell the team they made all of us really proud to be Notre Dame baseball alumni,'” Mancini said. “And that hasn’t always been the case. When I was there, we weren’t the best team on campus, I would say.
But now Notre Dame, Auburn and Stanford are joining the College World Series, leaving the Orioles three members of the organization with conflicting interests. Reutschman already has to buy Henderson dinner so that Auburn kicks out Oregon State—but it’s Henderson’s birthday soon, so Rutschman doesn’t mind the combination of events.
Should either of those teams meet, Mancini is optimistic Notre Dame could be the winning side. Perhaps he’ll even take a page out of Henderson’s book by sending himself a laughing voice memo.
“They are a good team to win it all,” Mancini said. “They really are.”
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