One man’s pleasure is another man’s pain.

On Sunday, Paul Mainieri earned his 500th victory in his 12th season as Notre Dame Head Coach, as the Fighting Irish (12-8, 2-1) took two of three games in the opening series of Big East play. Notre Dame has now won 10 of its last 13 games.

The Georgetown baseball team (11-14, 1-2), meanwhile, is fighting the injury bug with four hurt players. With the Hoyas’ only win of the series coming in the first game on Saturday, Georgetown fell to 3-26 against Notre Dame in the 10 seasons that the Irish have been in the conference.

Nevertheless, Georgetown Head Coach Pete Wilk called this weekend “something to build on.”

“I think Georgetown has an awful lot to be proud of,” Mainieri said. “Those were three hard-fought games. We were fortunate to win the series.”

Notre Dame is historically the best team in the Big East: It has won the Big East tournament the last four years in a row, and the conference’s coaches picked the Irish to do it again this year. Georgetown, however, has finished in last place the last four years.

Georgetown suffered a tough setback before the first game began when junior infielder Joe Graziano got hit in the face by a ball during batting practice.

According to Wilk, Graziano’s jaw is broken in three places and had to be wired shut. Graziano probably will not return to campus until later this week, and when he will return to the team is unknown at this point.

Wilk visited Graziano in the hospital Saturday night, and he said that Graziano “was in good spirits.”

Georgetown was still able to defeat Notre Dame 8-3 in the first game thanks to the strong performance from senior right-hander Warren Sizemore. Sizemore (2-1) gave up just four hits in eight innings in a game that he had been looking forward to all season, according to Wilk.

“He pitched his butt off,” Wilk said.

Sophomore right-hander Daniel Kennedy finished off the game with three straight batters and three straight outs. He has given up only one run in 15.2 innings this season.

The Hoya offense put up its best numbers of the weekend, outhitting the Irish 15-4 – and most of those hits came off a pitcher who was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2003 – junior Jeff Manship. Manship gave up eight hits and four earned runs, though he still struck out a whopping nine batters in six innings.

Prior to this weekend, Manship had a 1.44 ERA and .176 opponent’s batting average, both the fourth-best in the conference.

Wilk attributed Georgetown’s success at the plate to the team’s ability to hit fastballs, on which Manship mostly relied.

“We can hit fastballs,” Wilk said. “We are starting to hit the breaking ball but are not quite there yet.”

Wilk said that the 8-3 win was Georgetown’s best game of the year, because the pitching, offense and defense all came together.

“When we do that, we’re outstanding,” Wilk said. “But there’s only been one or two games when we’ve done that.”

The next game was not one of those few games. Notre Dame won 12-2, as Georgetown freshman right-hander Darren Sizemore (3-2) gave up 11 hits and seven earned runs in four innings. The Hoya offense could only muster two runs in the seventh to help him, while the defense, usually the Hoyas’ strong suit, made four errors.

Irish leadoff hitter Jeremy Barnes, a freshman first baseman, had a great day offensively, going 3-for-6 at the plate with three RBI, three runs and a homer.

But the majority of Notre Dame’s offense came, like usual this season, from senior shortstop Greg Lopez (2-for-4, two RBI) and outfielder Cody Rizzo (3-for-4, four RBI, three runs and a home run). Combined, Lopez and Rizzo have produced more RBI than any other two hitters in the Irish lineup – an unusual feat for the two players who usually bat eighth and ninth.

“Well, if we could get the middle of the order like the bottom, we could have a pretty good team,” Mainieri said with a chuckle.

Before Sunday’s game, senior shortstop Matthew Johnson badly sprained his thumb practicing and did not play in the Hoyas’ 6-3 loss.

Georgetown’s starting pitcher for Sunday, senior right-hander Stephen Burns, was sick with a stomach virus that had kept him on bed rest for three days.

Burns only pitched two innings on Sunday before freshman left-hander Andy Ferich relieved him.

Georgetown’s catcher, junior Brandon Davis, despite a sore thumb, played in all three games. Wilk said that he did an “outstanding” job behind the plate.

At the plate, though, was a different story for the Hoyas. Irish senior lefty Tom Thornton nearly hurled a shutout, as Georgetown was scoreless through eight innings, with only three hits in that span.

In fact, Georgetown only scored in two innings in the latter two games of the series. The seventh inning of Saturday’s game and the final frame on Sunday.

Mainieri pulled Thornton after he gave up a single and sophomore second baseman Ross Brezovsky booted a line drive. Another pitcher, another error and a few hits later, Georgetown had three runs on the previously blank scoreboard.

But once Brezovsky settled down, he forced three straight outs to end the game.

Though Georgetown will not play Notre Dame again during the regular season, the Hoyas’ conference schedule is not about to get any easier. This weekend Georgetown faces St. John’s (13-7, 3-0), who earned an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament last year – a rare feat in the Big East conference.

Mainieri’s compliments, though, demonstrate that the Big East’s best teams will not look past the Hoyas.

“They’re a team to be reckoned with in the future,” he said.

But before the Hoyas’ weekend series with the Red Storm in New York, Georgetown will take on Mount St. Mary’s (9-9, 2-1 NEC) in Emmitsburg, Md., at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.