Heading into its final series of the season against No. 3 Clemson, Boston College baseball had won just one of its last 10 games. The weekend series at Doug Kingsmore Stadium presented an opportunity for the Eagles to end their season on a high note and pick up some momentum heading into the ACC Tournament.
Instead, the highly-ranked Tigers (40–13, 20–10) controlled the series over the Eagles (22–31, 8–22 Atlantic Coast) from start to finish and secured a sweep over BC.
Saturday’s series finale was the most lopsided matchup between the two squads, with the Tigers picking up a 10–0 win.
Michael Farinelli got the start on the bump for the Eagles and began the game strong, throwing four scoreless innings.
BC’s offense could not capitalize on the pitching success, however, and left five runners stranded on base through the first four innings.
Farinelli ran into trouble in the fifth inning. He hit Nolan Nawrocki with a pitch to start things off. After he stole second and then advanced to third off a BC error, Nawrocki ultimately scored on a wild pitch.
A sacrifice fly from Clemson’s Blake Wright added another run from Alden Mathes, who had advanced to third on another pitch from Farinelli. The Eagles ended the inning down 2–0.
Kyle Kipp relieved Farinelli in the sixth inning and allowed two more runs on an RBI single from Jacob Jarrell and a sacrifice fly from Nawrocki. Travis Lane replaced Kipp later in the sixth inning and forced a flyout to end the inning with the Eagles trailing 4–0.
Lane stayed in the game for the bottom of the seventh inning and allowed a solo home run to the first batter he faced. Charlie Coon took over for Lane immediately after and allowed another run as the Tigers pushed their lead to 6–0. Head coach Todd Interdonato sent in Brad Lombardi to end the seventh, but he couldn’t end things before Clemson pushed their lead to 7–0.
The Eagles never found the offense needed to respond to the barrage from the Tigers, ending the game 1-8 with runners in scoring position and 2-14 with runners on base.
Beck Milner came into the game in the bottom of the eighth inning, but could not save the Eagles from the mercy rule cutting the game short as the Tigers took a ten-run lead. The game ended on a bases-loaded walk for Jarrell.
In Friday’s game, BC’s offense showed more fight.
The Eagles jumped out to a 2–0 lead in the top of the second inning on a John Collins home run to center field. Jarrell’s groundout in the bottom of the inning halved BC’s lead as it scored the first of nine unanswered runs for the Tigers.
Clemson did heavy damage in the fourth inning, scoring five runs in the frame.
The Eagles found themselves trailing by as many as eight runs in the sixth inning before scoring three in the eighth inning off hits from Kyle Wolff and Adam Magpoc to cut the Clemson lead to five. The Eagles were not able to pull any closer, though, and came away with an 11–6 loss.
Thursday’s opener proved to be the closest matchup of the series.
The Eagles took a 5–0 lead in the first inning, capped by a three-run homer from Parker Landwehr.
Clemson’s big answer came in the third inning, when the Tigers recorded a three-run home run of their own off the bat of Jimmy Obertop, cutting the BC lead to 6–4.
The Eagles responded by adding two more runs in the fourth inning to give them an 8-4 lead. But the Tigers added two runs in the bottom of the frame to bring the differential back to two.
A throwing error from BC in the bottom of the fifth inning allowed Clemson to score two runs and knot the game at 8–8.
The Tigers took their first lead in the sixth with a solo home run from leadoff hitter Alden Mathes. Then, Barry Walsh tied the game yet again with an RBI double to left center field in the top of the seventh.
Cameron Leary came through with a big home run in the eighth inning to put BC back on top 10–9, but a three-run homer in the bottom of the frame gave Clemson a 12–10 lead that the Eagles were unable to recover from as they dropped the first game of the series.
