After finishing 14th in the ACC, Boston College (29-28, 11-19) baseball narrowly made the ACC Baseball Championship tournament. But so far, they’ve made the most of their opportunity, defeating 11th-seeded Notre Dame (32-21, 14-16) and 6th-seeded Virginia (32-18, 16-11).
They played the Fighting Irish on Tuesday and beat them in an extra-inning thriller. With A.J. Colarusso on the mound for the Eagles, Notre Dame plated two runs in the bottom of the first. But BC didn’t trail for long, scoring three runs in the second thanks to a three-run shot by Kyle Wolff. BC took a 4-2 lead in the third on a sac bunt by Gunnar Johnson that scored Josiah Ragsdale.
The Irish hit a solo homer in the fourth and tied the game on a bases-loaded walk in the sixth, but neither pitching staff budged for the next three innings. In the top of the tenth, Sam McNulty led off the inning for the Eagles with a single to left and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Patrick Roche came to the plate and connected with a 1-2 pitch, sending it center field for a single and driving in McNulty to give BC a 5-4 lead.
Gavin Soares, who pitched the final 4.2 innings for Boston College, finished off the Irish in the ninth and sent BC to the second round of the tournament with a 5-4 win.
On Wednesday, the Eagles played the Virginia Cavaliers, jumped on them quickly, and didn’t look back. In the opening frame, BC scored five runs on three hits, and two errors. Ragsdale led off the game and reached on a catcher’s interference. He stole second, Roche walked, and then they stole second and third. Jack Toomey drove them in with a double and gave BC its first lead of the game. After Toomey scored a few batters later on an error and with two runners on base, Adam Magpoc drove in the final two runs of the inning on a double to left field.
Virginia hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the first but the Eagles struck again in the second, in what was a messy inning. McNulty singled and advanced to second on a balk. Roche was hit by a pitch, he and McNulty stole second and third, and then Johnson walked to load the bases. Virginia’s pitcher threw a wild pitch that allowed McNulty to score and Roche scored after a throwing error by the catcher, giving BC a 7-2 lead.
After the Cavaliers scored twice in the second, BC held a 7-4 lead entering the fourth. The Eagles scored two more runs in the fourth, one on an error and another on a single by Esteban Garcia to take a 9-4 lead. But Virginia wouldn’t go quietly and made it a one-run ballgame after scoring four runs in the sixth on two hits and an error.
Fortunately, BC’s offense scored some much-needed insurance runs in the eighth, freshman Cesar Gonzalez threw three scoreless innings to end the game, and Boston College baseball earned a 12-8 victory over Virginia.
That win pushes Boston College into the ACC Baseball Championship quarterfinals against the three-seed North Carolina Tarheels (39-12, 18-11). That game will be played on Friday at 7 PM EST and will be available on the ACC Network.