Boston College baseball was swept by NC State last weekend, falling to 7-6 on the season. They played two out-of-conference games this week, against Merrimack and Siena College, before returning to ACC play against Pittsburgh over the weekend. They won four of the five games and also claimed their first ACC series win of 2024.
On Tuesday, March 12, the Eagles played the Merrimack Warriors (3-11) in Chestnut Hill at the Harrington Athletics Village. The Birdball bats exploded again in this game and BC got back in the win column with a 17-7 victory in seven innings.
Merrimack took a 2-0 lead in the first, but BC took their first lead by scoring three runs in the bottom of the inning. Cameron Leary had an RBI double, Vince Cimini had an RBI single, and Parker Landwehr hit an RBI sac fly for the Eagles in the inning. In the second inning, Kyle Wolff hit a bases-loaded double to left field, putting BC up 6-2. BC put four more runs on the scoreboard in the third inning on singles by Sam McNulty, Leary, and Cimini. Birdball took a 12-2 lead in the fourth after McNulty scored on an error and Cimini hit an RBI single to left field.
Merrimack got back on the board in the fifth, scoring five runs to cut the deficit to five, but BC pitching shut them down for the rest of the ballgame. The Eagles scored once in the sixth and twice in the seventh, ending the scoring in the game. Cam Caraher, Leary, and Cimini all had three hits and Leary had four RBI, Wolff had six, and Cimini had three. Gavin Hasche earned his first win of the season by pitching a scoreless two innings.
The bats stayed on fire on Wednesday as the Eagles beat Siena (0-13) 20-4 in seven innings. The Eagles led 8-0 after just two innings, thanks to a few BC hits and a few costly errors by the Saints. Nick Wang homered in the fifth and sixth innings, as BC scored four runs in the fifth and five in the sixth. Wang went four for five, with two homers and five RBI. Center fielder Owen DeShazo collected three hits and three RBI. Brian McMonagle pitched three innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts, earning his second win of the year.
Over the weekend, Boston College traveled to Pennsylvania to take on the Pitt Panthers (10-5, 1-3). Unfortunately, BC’s bats couldn’t out-mash their opponents for a third game in a row and the Eagles lost 12-5.
With ace John West on the mound, Pitt scored four runs in the second inning. Wang hit a solo home run in the third and then smashed a three-run double to right field in the fourth inning, tying the game at 4-4. Michael Farinelli took over for West and allowed the Panthers to score twice in the fifth and sixth innings, taking an 8-4 lead. BC did score once in the eighth, but Pitt scored four more runs in the eighth and took the first game of the series.
Wang continued his hot streak, finishing with three hits and four RBI, but only three other Eagles had hits in the game. Farinelli was pegged with the loss, his second of the season, after giving up four runs on two walks and five hits in 1.2 innings. In total, BC pitching gave up five walks, 18 hits, and 12 runs, as the staff continued to struggle against ACC opponents.
Saturday’s game was a very different story for the BC offense. They scored at least once in each of the first five innings, and Pitt was never really within striking distance, as the Eagles won 16-10.
Cimini opened the scoring in the first with an RBI single and Adam Magpoc made the score 2-0 with an RBI double. Pitt tied the game with a homer in the bottom of the inning, but BC snatched the lead back in the second with a Wang RBI double.
In the third, Cimini hit a solo homer to center field to give the Eagles a 4-2 lead. BC cracked the game open in the fourth inning, scoring eight runs in the frame. Patrick Roche had an RBI triple, Wang mashed a two-run homer to center, Cimini had an RBI single, Magpoc hit his own two-run shot to center, and Roche singled up the middle for an RBI to end the scoring. Pitt scored one run in the fourth, which BC negated in the fifth on a two-RBI knock from Caraher, making the score 14-3. Pitt scored twice in the sixth before BC scratched another run across in the seventh. The Panthers hit two homers in the seventh and eighth to bring them within five runs, and the Eagles added one final run after Chris Markovic scored on a balk in the ninth.
All nine starting batters had at least one hit, with five of them collecting at least two. Cimini had four hits, four runs, and four RBI and both Magpoc and Wang had two hits and three RBI. A.J. Colarusso earned his second win of 2024 after going five innings, giving up 12 hits, five runs, and striking out two.
In Sunday’s rubber match, the Eagles earned their first ACC series win of the year by beating Pitt, 8-3. BC jumped on the Panthers early, scoring two runs in the first and third innings, and the pitching staff performed very well. In the top of the first, Wolff grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored Roche from third and then Cimini hit a single to right field that scored Wang. Cimini continued his strong weekend with a two-run homer to center field in the third.
Both teams scored once in the fifth, and Pitt scored two runs on a single to center in the bottom of the sixth, making the score 5-3 Boston College. The Eagles extended their lead on a Cameron Leary solo shot in the seventh and a Magpoc double in the eighth and won the game 7-3. Sean Hard started the game and pitched three scoreless innings and struck out five batters. Eric Schroder earned the win, his first of the year, after going 4.1 innings, giving up two earned runs with one strikeout. Michael Farinelli ended the game with 1.2 innings of scoreless ball.
All in all, Birdball had a very successful week and improved to 11-7 on the season. They’ll be back in action on Tuesday in a home game against the Northeastern Huskies.