After losing to Northeastern in the Beanpot Final on Tuesday, Boston College baseball played Dartmouth on Wednesday and No. 14 Wake Forest over the weekend, as the Eagles attempted to keep pace with the rest of the ACC.
Birdball handled Dartmouth (7-15) with ease, 7-1, at the Harrington Athletics Village. BC threw a bullpen game, giving six pitchers the opportunity to get some work in. Brad Lombardi earned the win with two scoreless innings and Charlie Coon also pitched a pair of scoreless innings and struck out three batters.
BC opened the scoring in the first inning on a two-run single by Kyle Wolff. The team scored two more times in the second thanks to an RBI single by Cameron Leary and after Nick Wang was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Wolff drove in another run in the fourth on a double and John Collins brought him home with a triple to give BC a 6-0 lead. Wolff finished with three hits and RBI from the three-hole, Leary went two-for-four with two RBI, and Patrick Roche, Adam Magpoc, and Sam McNulty all also had two hits in the game.
On Friday night, Boston College welcomed No. 14 Wake Forest (22-10) to town. The Demon Deacons entered the series fourth in the Atlantic Division of the ACC, two spots above the Eagles. Wake took the first game in a 13-1 rout that saw them rack up 13 hits and hold BC to just two.
With one of the best pitchers in college baseball, Chase Burns, on the mound for the Demon Deacons, the potent Birdball offense was rendered ineffective. The team managed just one run on two hits and struck out nine times in eight innings. BC’s defense was subpar as well: with the game already out of hand, the Eagles committed four errors that led to four unearned runs in the eighth inning.
Fortunately, the Eagles’ luck turned around on Saturday afternoon. John West got the start and pitched well, giving up four hits and three runs over six innings while striking out two. But Wake pitching held the upper hand for most of the game, holding the BC offense scoreless until the seventh inning.
But in the seventh, Birdball finally broke through, scoring four runs on four hits and tying the game at 4-4. McNulty hit an RBI double, Leary had an RBI single, and Wang hit a two-run single to right field in the frame. The game remained tied entering the bottom of the ninth inning as Cameron Leary stepped to the plate. The lefty smashed a 2-2 pitch over the left field fence to give BC a walk-off, 5-4 upset win over the Demon Deacons. It was Leary’s second straight weekend with a walk-off homer.
Sunday presented the Eagles with the opportunity to upset Wake Forest in the series, but the team couldn’t recapture the magic of Saturday’s game. BC took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a double by Wolff that scored Leary, but Wake seized control of the game shortly after.
The Demon Deacons scored six runs in the next three innings to put the game out of reach. BC scored one in the fourth and in the ninth, but Wake Forest scored another three runs in the ninth and beat Birdball 9-3.
After this series, Boston College baseball moves to 19-16 overall and 7-10 in ACC play. Their next game will come on April 17 when they welcome the UConn Huskies to Harrington Athletics Village.