After dominating the opening matchup on Thursday at Fenway Park, Boston College baseball returned to Harrington Athletics Village for its final two games against No. 14 Virginia. Unlike on Thursday, BC’s offense failed to show up, and it dropped the series.
The Eagles (21–21, 8–16 Atlantic Coast) never scored a run on Saturday and were shut out by Virginia (33–12, 14–10) 4–0.
Evan Moore got the start on the bump for the Eagles and produced two clean innings to start Saturday’s game.
The scoring began for the Cavaliers in the top of the third inning, when Bobby Whalen grounded out to second base and Henry Godbout scored from third. Virginia doubled its lead with an RBI single from Casey Saucke in the next at-bat. Saucke was then thrown out stealing by Beck Milner at second base, which ended the inning.
With the bottom of the third frame came another scoreless inning from the Eagles in which they left two runners stranded. The Eagles ended the game 0-of-9 with runners in scoring position.
“I thought we hit a lot of balls hard that went for outs,” BC head coach Todd Interdonato said. “I thought we had some situations where we had a chance to cash in.”
Jordan Fisse came onto the mound for Moore in the top of the fourth inning and recorded a scoreless frame.
The Cavaliers’ last runs of the game came in the top of the fifth inning. Another RBI from Whalen made the score 3–0 before a sacrifice fly from Saucke gave Virginia a 4–0 advantage.
The Eagles were never able to cut into the Virginia lead, but it wasn’t for a lack of opportunities. In the bottom of the fifth inning, BC once again left two runners stranded after a groundout from Cameron Leary ended the frame.
Charlie Coon came into the game for BC in the sixth inning, setting the Cavaliers down in order.
Michael Farinelli pitched the seventh and eighth innings for the Eagles and kept Virginia from adding to its four-run lead.
“I think that’s the best offense in the country,” Interdonato said. “And for us to hold them down the way we did through 27 innings is good, especially coming off of what happened last weekend. I told them that was pitching tough.”
In both of the seventh and eighth innings, the Eagles left two runners stranded.
Kyle Kipp took the mound in the ninth inning and once again tallied a shutout inning.
The Eagles went out with a whimper in the bottom of the ninth inning. Milner recorded a single, but that was all they could manage as they fell 4–0.
Friday’s game between the two teams was much closer than Saturday’s.
The Eagles took an early 2–0 lead with a Nick Wang double down the left-field line in the first inning.
The Cavaliers tied the game up in the second inning with a triple from Eric Becker.
Vince Cimini put the Eagles back on top in the third inning with a single to left field before Virginia tied the game at three in the sixth inning.
The Cavaliers scored the final run of the game in the top of the ninth inning on a fielder’s choice. The Eagles were not able to respond, and dropped the game 4–3.
“That one yesterday is still eating at me just because we had some really good looks at it,” Interdonato said following Saturday’s loss. “We’ll see, we got to reset, we got to play better this week.”
