Irish

Irish pubs should be a few things: cozy, welcoming and convivial. They need a seemingly endless supply of Guinness, Harp and whiskey. Kelsey's Restaurant, an Ellicott City fixture for almost two decades, fits the bill, turning out pub-friendly food that's fresh and tasty. Hoping to create a neighborhood gathering spot in the mold of traditional Irish pubs, Chris and Maureen McManus opened Kelsey's in 1994. A few years ago, Mark Mays and Chad Medina bought into the restaurant, creating a four-way partnership.

Joseph Patrick Byrne, founder and proprietor of J. Patrick's Irish Pub, a popular Locust Point tavern with a reputation as a venue for Irish music that went well beyond Baltimore, died Saturday of cancer at Harbor Hospital. The former Cockeysville resident was 81. "It was a real gathering place for the Irish-American community of Baltimore, and it had the feel of a rural country bar, the type you find outside of Dublin. It was both warm and inviting," said Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Sad news for Baltimore's Irish community: Joe Patrick Byrne, who for decades ran J. Patrick's Irish Pub in Locust Point, passed away last Saturday of cancer. The future of the pub is uncertain. Byrne, who lived above the bar, made J. Patrick's one of Baltimore's most authentic Irish pubs. Every week, musicians came to practice, jam and perform traditional Irish music there. While the pub doesn't look like much from the outside (you might drive past it a few times if you don't know exactly where to look)

Loyola attackmen Eric Lusby and Mike Sawyer have seen a lot of different zones and man-to-man defensive combinations this season. Fairfield tried to match up with them by using two short-stick midfielders. And last Saturday, Denver played a zone that shut off Sawyer, but Lubsy blew up the Pioneers for five goals in Loyola's 10-9 NCAA quarterfinal win at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Next up for the No. 1-seeded Greyhounds is No. 4 seed Notre Dame on Saturday in the semi-finals at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

Loyola will enjoy its first berth in the Final Four since 1998, but an unenviable task awaits the top-seeded Greyhounds (16-1) when they meet No. 4 seed Notre Dame in an NCAA tournament semifinal on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The offense will try to become only the third opponent this season to decipher the Fighting Irish's bewildering defense, a unit so fundamentally sound that it has allowed only one team to reach double digits in goals this spring.

• On a Notre Dame men's lacrosse team where everyone contributes, Clarksville's Jim Marlatt has grabbed the spotlight. The River Hill grad had a career-high five-point day in the NCAA first-round win over Yale. But it's depth that has been the key: 19 different players have hit the back of the net for the Irish, who play Virginia on Sunday in the NCAA quarterfinals. "We're just looking for the opening guy and whoever that guys is at the end of the play is going to get the goal," said Marlatt, a 2012 Big East Conference first-team honoree.

Steele Stanwick (Loyola High) fed fellow senior attackman Chris Bocklet for a fourth-quarter goal that proved to be the difference as No. 5 seed Virginia outlasted visiting Princeton, 6-5, Sunday afternoon in NCAA tournament first-round game. The six goals were the fewest the Cavaliers (12-3) had ever scored in an NCAA tournament win, and the 11 total goals tied for the fifth-fewest ever in a tournament game. Bocklet and senior midfielder Colin Briggs led Virginia with two goals apiece, while Stanwick - one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Award, given to the top college player - added an assist.

Loyola's 10-9 overtime loss to Johns Hopkins Saturday opened the door for Notre Dame to move into the top spot in RPI (ratings percentage index). In the third version of the list released by the NCAA Monday evening, the Fighting Irish (11-1) jumped from third to first in RPI, which uses a formula of compiling a team's winning percentage, that squad's opponents' winning percentage and the team's opponents' opponents' winning percentage. Notre Dame is ranked second in the latest Sun rankings.

The Loyola women's lacrosse team's performance on the draw Sunday against undefeated Notre Dame mirrored its season so far: struggling early and dominating late. After winning just two first-half draws, the No. 18 Greyhounds controlled 11 of 17 in the second half to build a nine-goal lead en route to a 17-11 Big East Conference victory over the No. 6 Irish at Loyola's Ridley Athletic Complex. The Greyhounds won 10 of the first 13 second-half draws and that helped them boost a 9-8 lead with 23 minutes left to 17-8 after Marlee Paton earned her career-high fourth assist on Annie Thomas' goal with 5:13 left.

— The Notre Dame women's basketball team sent a quick message to its wannabe Cinderella opponent in Sunday's NCAA tournament game at PNC Arena: Glass slippers are for fairy tales, not for the Sweet 16. The top-seeded Irish bullied their way through ball screens on defense, holding St.Bonaventure's leading scorer without a point and leaving the rest of the Bonnies — including their coach, Jim Crowley — hopeless in a 79-35 victory. The win sent Notre Dame (33-3) into Tuesday's regional final against second-seeded Maryland (31-4)