As Cam Caraher swung and missed for the final out of Boston College baseball’s second loss to Virginia Tech on Friday, Virginia Tech closer Jordan Little pumped his fist and gestured towards the Eagles’ dugout. A brief yelling match between the players ensued as tensions and emotions were high in the ACC matchup. The Eagles loss capped off a double-header between the Eagles and Hokies that saw Virginia Tech come out on top in both games.
The story of the second matchup was the Hokies’ pitching staff keeping the Eagles offense in check. Wyatt Parliament allowed three hits and one earned run while totaling six strikeouts through five innings.The Eagles were able to generate some offense towards the end of the game, but ultimately it proved to be too little too late.
“I thought he executed very well,” BC head Coach Todd Interdonato said of Wyatt Parliament. “I thought he got his breaking ball in and out of the zone at the right times and our offense has been so dangerous all year and he was able to slow us down. We kept saying in the dugout that we knew there were some runs in there and we felt really good about having a chance to score and obviously came up a foot short of tying it at the end.”
No. 19 Virginia Tech (17–4, 7–1 Atlantic Coast) was able to defeat BC (11–10, 2–4) by a score of 4–3 in the game, and earlier in the day defeated the Eagles 9–6.
The game got off to a rocky start for the Eagles. On the first pitch of the game, the Hokies’ Christian Martin hit a triple off of BC’s A.J. Colarusso. A sacrifice fly by Casey DeMartini scored Martin and the Hokies got off to a quick 1––0 lead.
The Eagles would answer back quickly in the bottom of the first, though, after an RBI triple from Kyle Wolff scored Vince Cimini.
Colarusso continued to struggle in the early part of the game. In the top of the second, Henry Cook hit a solo home run to double the lead and a sacrifice fly from Clay Grady scored another Hokie runner to make the score 3–1.
The Eagles’ early struggles continued on the offensive side as well. After an Adam Magpoc single, a disastrous sequence unfolded. Cam Caraher struck out, and Magpoc was picked off at first. Then, Beck Milner struck out to end the inning.
The Hokies made the score 4––1 after a hit and run from Ethan Gibson in the top of the fourth. Gibson was caught stealing at second but the Hokies had runners on the corners, and were able to score a run to increase the lead to three.
Colarusso and the Eagles’ pitching staff held the Hokies in check for the rest of the game as the Boston College defense started to lock down.
“From the third through the sixth, he just gave us a chance to win and he was able to hang in there which is a credit to his toughness,” Interdonato said about Colarusso’s performance.
BC’s offense finally hit their stride in the eighth inning. After a Cameron Leary single, and walks from Nick Wang and Vince Cimini, Kyle Wolff had the bases loaded with two outs. Wolff proceeded to smash a ball into left field, easily scoring two runs. As the third runner slid across the plate, the ball came flying in from left field and Cimini was tagged out at the plate as the umpire pumped his fist to signal the final out of the inning.
Interdonato argued the call which went to video review, but the call stood and BC entered the final frame trailing 4–3.
BC’s Eric Schroeder retired the side in the top of the ninth to keep the deficit at one and give the Eagles one last chance to tie the game. However, Little struck out the final three batters for the Eagles, and gave Virginia Tech the win in dramatic fashion.
“It’s a credit to our toughness and a credit to the talent we have on offense,” Interdonato said on his team’s rally at the end of the game. “I mean I just think those guys have a lot of belief on offense.”
The Eagles opened up their weekend doubleheader earlier on Friday against Virginia Tech. BC went down by two runs in the second inning after Virginia Tech’s Henry Cook and David McCann both hit RBI singles.
BC cut the deficit in half in the third inning after an RBI double from Cam Leary that scored Adam Magpoc.
But Virginia Tech answered in the 5th inning after an RBI triple from Clay Grady and a sacrifice fly from Christian Martin.
In the bottom of the 5th, the Eagles rallied to score three runs. First, Cam Leary hit a two-run shot. After an RBI single from Vince Cimini, Kyle Wolff hit another homer to score Cimini and put the Eagles up by two.
The Eagles, however, were unable to hang onto the two run lead they had built in the 5th. VT’s Chris Cannizaro hit an RBI double in the 7th to cut the deficit to one. Then, in the 9th inning Christian Martin hit a three run bomb to put the Hokies up by two in the final frame. Eddie Michelleti put the icing on the cake with an RBI double in the 9th to put the Hokies up 9-6.
