Sunday, April 22, 2001
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The University of Notre Dame baseball team is off to its best start ever, and one reason is a Youngstown-area player.
Andy Bushey of Boardman, a junior third baseman from Cardinal Mooney High, has helped the team to a 32-5-1 record entering last weekend's three-game series at home against Villanova.
At 12-2, Notre Dame is in first place in the Big East Conference, with a commanding four-game lead.
"We have the best record [ever] at Notre Dame at this point in the season," said Bushey, a tri-captain and a three-year starter.
Bushey said he is much improved from last season, when he batted .275 and helped the Irish to a 46-18 record, including 18-7 in the Big East. This year, he is batting .345 -- fourth-best on the team.
Summer league: He credited his improvement to playing last summer in the Jayhawk collegiate wooden-bat league in Kansas, after being sidelined from baseball the previous summer because of an injury.
"The Jayhawk helped me a lot. I'm a lot more aggressive at the plate. Playing last summer, I had a lot of at-bats and I felt better," he said.
He said the Jayhawk League also helped him defensively.
"I have fewer errors [eight] at this point in the season than the past two years. I feel better this year and my fielding percentage is a lot higher," said Bushey.
"I think it helped a lot that I played a lot of games this past summer and worked at third base, and I feel a lot more comfortable in the field."
Voted tri-captain: Bushey also has developed into a team leader, and was selected as tri-captain by a vote from teammates.
"I try to lead more by example on the field and during practice," said Bushey. "I'm really not a vocal guy, but I just try to get the job done."
But he has been more vocal this year.
"During games and practice, if I see we are really not focused or lacking effort, I'm a lot more quicker telling guys to try to be better," he said. "I feel a lot more comfortable in that role because I sense that they have confidence in me."
Bushey, who has also played seven games at catcher this year, plans to use this summer to further develop his skills behind the plate. He will play in the Cape Cod League for the Yarmouth Dennis team, and will be the catcher.
"I'm doing this [catching] because I'm probably going to catch next season [for Notre Dame]," said Bushey. "We're losing our catcher, and my coach thought I'd be a good catcher. I tried it this past fall and I did OK."
Lead to draft: Bushey also said he will have a better shot at playing professional baseball if he is a catcher.
"That would help me in the draft. The strongest part of my game is my arm, so that is going to help me as a catcher," said Bushey.
"It will be hard to get drafted as a third baseman because my weakness is my size and power, and that was what teams look for [in a third baseman]. But as a catcher, teams would look closer [at me] because of my arm and because I'm a left-handed batter."
As a freshman, Bushey started 36 games and batted .266 (34-for-128) with 10 RBIs and 19 runs scored.
Last year he batted .275 (58-for-211) with 30 RBIs and 27 runs scored in 62 starts, and also had a .939 fielding percentage.
This year, Bushey's batting .345 (46-for-134) with 11 doubles, 26 runs scored and 22 RBIs.
Defensively, his fielding percentage is .944.
He was named by Baseball America as the best defensive third baseman in the Big East Conference.
The son of Martha and Michael Bushey, Andy has a 3.4 grade-point average as a finance major. If professional baseball doesn't materialize after graduation in 2002, he would like to attend graduate school.
While at Mooney for coach Tom Flynn, Bushey was a shortstop and pitcher, leading the Cardinals to four Steel Valley Conference championships and two district titles, and was a four-time All-SVC choice. He also was a four-year honor student and a member of the National Honor Society.