Five unearned baserunners in the fifth inning of Boston College baseball’s home opener against Merrimack—two caused by BC pitcher Aidan Crowley hitting batters with the ball—let the Warriors back into a game BC had dominated for the first four innings. Suddenly, BC’s 10-run lead was cut to five as Merrimack made it 12–7.
But that was the closest the Warriors (3–11, 1–2 Northeast) would get to beating the Eagles, as BC (8–6, 0–3 Atlantic Coast) scored five unanswered runs to come away with a 17–7 run-rule win in BC’s home opener.
“You only get so many firsts, right—first game, and then first ACC game, first home game,” BC head coach Todd Interdonato said. “You could just tell it meant something to the players, it meant something to me, it meant something to our staff.”
Although BC ended the game in a dominant fashion, the first inning did not go that way for the Eagles. Sean Hard, who had pitched 1.2 innings in the 2024 season prior to Tuesday’s matchup, started the game for the Eagles.
Trouble started for BC when Merrimack’s leadoff batter, Hayden Bond, hit a double and then stole third base. Hard hit Frankie Ferrentino with a pitch that sent him to first and Cavan Brady, who had walked in his at bat, to second. After that, the Warriors took over.
Dawson Bryce hit a single into left field, and Bond ran home to put Merrimack up 1–0. Shortly after, Alex Haba walked, sending Brady home and stretching the Warriors’ lead to two.
“Sean is very talented and has a chance to be a really big piece for us,” Interdonato said. “But we just feel like we have to get him some success and we got to build him up.”
The first inning would be the entirety of Hard’s stint on the mound.
Thanks to Cam Caraher, Cameron Leary, and Kyle Wolff, the Eagles responded and established a lead of their own in the bottom of the first frame. BC took a 3–2 lead—a lead that BC never gave up.
The Eagles’ comeback started when Caraher knocked the ball to right field, then stole second base. Then, Leary hit a double to send Caraher home. Merrimack pitcher James Borsari hit Wolff with a pitch, sending him to first base. From there, Vince Cimini singled to left field and Parker Landwehr flew out to center, scoring Wolff to put the Eagles up 3–2.
The Eagles’ scoring continued, and BC led 12–2 headed into the fifth inning.
Merrimack’s big fifth inning that came as a result of Crowley allowing two walks and hitting two batters did not end when Kyle Kipp relieved Crowley—two more runs crossed the plate and the Warriors brought the score to 12–7 to end the fifth.
“Obviously we gave them some free passes there, which was unfortunate,” Interdonato said. “But you got to give them credit in order to capitalize on that. But then, we responded with more runs.”
The Eagles stopped the bleeding in the game’s last two innings, scoring five runs combined between the two and holding Merrimack off completely.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Wolff hit Damon Fuller’s pitch all the way to the corner of right field. Although Merrimack was quick enough to tag Wolff out at third base, the Warriors were not quick enough to stop Leary, Nick Wang, and Caraher from scoring. Wang and Caraher had both stolen bases earlier in the inning, which set them up for their runs.
Runs from Sean McNulty and Caraher in the seventh inning closed out the game. BC’s win came after three straight weekend losses to NC State.
“The weekend f—–g sucked,” Interdonato said. “We just got to come out and play and respond, and had a good win today.”
