Last year, Boston College baseball won 16 of its final 22 games to sneak into its second-straight ACC Tournament, marking the first time that the Eagles had reached the postseason in consecutive years since 2009-10. If BC is to get back there again, it’ll have to make do against seven teams from the 2017 NCAA Tournament, including two College World Series participants (Florida State and Louisville).
On Tuesday, the program released its complete schedule for the upcoming season—the Eagles’ first playing away from Shea Field in 56 years.
2018 Schedule (Note: italicization denotes ACC competition):
Feb. 16-18 at Santa Clara (Santa Clara, Calif.)
—> The Eagles haven’t flown out West since the beginning of the 2014 season, when they played both Nevada and Santa Clara in a round-robin tournament.
Feb. 22 at Boston Red Sox (Fort Myers, Fla.) *Exhibition
Snowbird Classic
Feb. 23 Vs. Minnesota (Port Charlotte, Fla.)
Feb. 24 Vs. Indiana (Port Charlotte, Fla.)
Feb. 25 Vs. Rutgers (Port Charlotte, Fla.)
March 2 Vs. Niagara (Cary, N.C.)
—> In 2016, BC poured on a combined 16 runs in consecutive wins over the Purple Eagles.
March 3 Vs. Bryant (Cary, N.C.)
March 4 Vs. Army (Cary, N.C.)
March 6 at UNC Asheville (Asheville, N.C.)
—> The Eagles have never played the Bulldogs, prior to this season.
March 7 Vs. Wofford (Greenville, S.C.)
March 9-11 at North Carolina State (Raleigh, N.C.)
—> Just a season ago, the Eagles swept N.C. State. After exploding for eight runs in the first game of the series—the sixth annual ALS Game—BC relied on its starting pitching to finish off the Wolfpack and get back into the ACC Tournament conversation.
March 13 Vs. Holy Cross (Brighton, Mass.) *Home Opener
—> About a month into the regular season, head coach Mike Gambino’s team will finally play its home opener at its new field located near the Brighton campus.
March 16-18 at Virginia (Charlottesville, Va.)
March 20 Vs. Northeastern (Brighton, Mass.)
—> Last year, BC got the best of Northeastern on two separate occasions, including the first round of the Beanpot Tournament.
March 21 Vs. Siena College (Brighton, Mass.)
March 23-25 Vs. Virginia Tech (Brighton, Mass.)
—> In 2016, the Eagles stole two games against the Hokies. But last season, VTech manhandled their pitching staff, scoring 26 runs in the first two games of an eventual series sweep.
March 27 Vs. Connecticut (Brighton, Mass.)
March 29-31 at Clemson (Clemson, S.C.)
—> BC went toe-to-toe with Clemson on the mound last year, only allowing three total runs in the final two games of the series. The problem was, the Eagles couldn’t score.
Beanpot
April 3 at Harvard (Cambridge, Mass.)
April 4 Vs. Massachusetts (Brighton, Mass.)
April 6-8 Vs. Pittsburgh (Brighton, Mass.)
Beanpot
April 10 Vs. TBA (Northborough, Mass.)
April 13-15 Vs. Wake Forest (Brighton, Mass.)
—> Sandwiched between a pair of losses to the Demon Deacons, Dan Metzdorf helped put together an eight-run shutout in Winston-Salem, N.C.
April 18 Vs. Dartmouth (Brighton, Mass.)
April 20-22 Vs. Florida State (Brighton, Mass.)
—> BC actually beat the Seminoles in Game One of last year’s series, but proceeded to lose the next two by a combined score of 24-1. The Eagles didn’t win another ACC game for an entire month.
April 24 at Massachusetts Lowell (Lowell, Mass.)
April 25 Vs. Bryant (Brighton, Mass.)
April 27-29 at Notre Dame (South Bend, Ind.)
—> Without BC’s sweep of the Irish at the tail end of last season, it probably wouldn’t have made it back to the postseason. When it really mattered, Donovan Casey picked up two-straight one-run wins to send the Eagles to the ACC Tournament.
May 1 Vs. Rhode Island (Brighton, Mass.)
May 2 at Brown (Providence, R.I.)
May 4-6 Vs. Louisville (Brighton, Mass.)
—> Over the past three seasons, the Eagles are 2-7 against Louisville. Both of those wins came at home, though.
May 15 Vs. Maine (Brighton, Mass.)
May 17-19 at Miami (Coral Gables, Fla.)
—> In a revenge series against the Hurricanes, nearly one year after Miami knocked out BC in the NCAA Super Regionals, the Eagles choked at home, dropping two of three to their interdivisional rival.
ACC Championship
May 22 Vs. TBA (Durham, N.C.)
Featured Image by Jake Catania / Heights Staff
