An onlooker may have thought that an 18-12 final score was that of a Patriots game—they did, after all, post that exact score in Mile High Stadium against the Broncos this past October. Instead, it was the score of Boston College baseball’s midweek game facing Holy Cross.
Offense came in waves on Wednesday, with No. 21 BC posting 18 hits to Holy Cross’ 19. Eight of BC’s nine batters posted a hit, and seven drove in at least one run. Holy Cross reached base every inning while retiring BC batters 1-2-3 twice in the ballgame. Following a scoreless third, with the Crusaders (0-1) leading 3-2, 25 more runs awaited. The Eagles (10-5) scored 16 of them, propelling themselves to their 10th win of the year.
Down 3-2 heading into the bottom of the fourth frame, Dante Baldelli walked to the plate with Vince Cimini on first and two outs. With a 2-1 count, Holy Cross right-hander Matt Remley threw ball three. Cimini looked to steal second and was dead to rights on a throw from catcher Angelo D’Acunto. Cimini bolted for second, and with a phenomenal swim move, slid in safe at second.
Baldelli gathered himself, took strike two, fouled four pitches off, and with the dugout roaring, took ball four. Peter Burns followed Baldelli with another quality at-bat and a seven-pitch walk. Chris Galland scored the tying run on catcher’s interference, and Brian Dempsey put the Eagles ahead 4-3 with a line drive.
That sequence was just the beginning of the Eagles’ offensive onslaught, as they posted 10 runs in the following two innings.
Cameron Leary shot a line-drive single to right field with runners on second and third, extending the Eagles’ lead to 6-3 in the fifth. Dempsey drove an opposite-field liner just out of reach for Crusaders’ right fielder Evan Blum. He took three bases, clearing the bases for three runs.
The sixth inning followed a familiar pattern, with Leary kicking the door down with an RBI ground ball. Baldelli, Galland, and Sal Frelick added RBI hits of their own, running away from the Crusaders at a score of 14-4 to begin the seventh.
The Crusaders attempted a comeback, and they cut the deficit to six runs before running out of outs to work with. In the seventh and eighth innings, Holy Cross barreled the ball continuously, with seven hits and seven runs. BC answered with four runs of its own, effectively putting the game away. Charlie Coon put a stop to the Crusaders’ comeback bid, finishing them off with a 17-pitch ninth.
Cimini, filling in for Cody Morissette as the Eagles’ second baseman, posted an incredible stat line of 4-for-4 from the plate, two walks, two stolen bases, and one RBI. Though Cimini had a banner day, he chalked it up to preparation.
“Today, we had a really good scouting report on these guys,” Cimini said in the postgame press conference. “You know, it’s their first time out since last year when they played us, so we knew they were going to attack the zone, so I kept my sights inside the zone [to] try to put the barrel on the ball.”
After being swept for the first time this season at Louisville this past weekend, the Eagles righted the ship with a victory over Holy Cross. With 18 runs in their favor on Wednesday, the Eagles are back on track.
“I think we’ve shown throughout this year that this is a premium, premium offense, so it is good to see, we feel like this lineup can always keep us in any baseball game,” head coach Mike Gambino said.
Featured Image Courtesy of BC Athletics
