Boston College baseball came out on fire in its Sunday afternoon game, hoping to earn a win after finding itself in the losing column on Thursday in its season opener.
The Eagles (1–1) scored a run in each of the first four innings, including a four-run fourth. Just like that, the Eagles got the first win of their young season with an 11–9 win over South Carolina Upstate (1–1), splitting the weekend series.
During their fast start, the Eagles did most of their damage in the top of the fourth, which included a two-RBI single from Patrick Roche and a two-run homer from Kyle Wolff that extended BC’s lead to 7–2.
“I felt like that four-run inning really … gave our offense confidence, because we do feel that we have a really good offense,” BC head coach Todd Interdonato said. “Putting a four spot up was really good.”
Even with a six-run deficit going into the bottom of the sixth inning, though, the Spartans wouldn’t go down without a fight.
In the bottom half of the sixth inning, the Spartans’ Alex Ritzer blasted a three-run shot over the right-field fence to cut the Eagles’ lead in half.
In the next inning, after a scoreless top of the seventh from BC, third baseman Jake Armsey added another three-run homer to tie up the game 8–8. The Spartans briefly took the lead in the bottom of the seventh, thanks to an infield RBI single from Ritzer.
The Eagles didn’t waste any time responding to the deficit, though, recovering some of the firepower they had during the early innings of the matchup.
Wolff continued his big day with another two-run homer that flew over the center-field fence, scoring both himself and Sam McNulty to go up 10–9.
“I feel like he gets overlooked—even in our own clubhouse—how good of a hitter he is,” Interdonato said.
To kick off the top of the ninth, Nick Wang hit an insurance home run over the left-field fence to extend the Eagles’ lead to two. Joey Ryan retired the side to close out the Eagles’ first victory of 2025.
In the first game of the series, the story was much different, as the Eagles fell 10–7.
BC started out strong, controlling the game through the first six-and-a-half innings, and holding a three-run advantage going into the bottom of the inning. Senior Eric Schroeder got the start on the bump for the Eagles, holding the Spartans scoreless in his three innings of work.
In the ensuing innings, though, the Spartans broke out. They scored 10 runs, scoring three in the sixth, four in the seventh, and three in the eighth.
The scoring outburst included three home runs on three consecutive pitches in the seventh inning. Scott Newman tacked on a three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth to give the Spartans a cushion on their way to victory.
Despite dropping their opening-day matchup, the Eagles did have a bright spot, as Holy Cross transfer Jack Toomey drove in the first three runs of the game, recording two hits in his first three at-bats in his debut as an Eagle.
The Eagles also opened up the season aggressively on the base paths, totaling eight stolen bases.
Due to rain, the second game between the Eagles and Spartans was cancelled. Originally, the game was rescheduled to be a Sunday doubleheader starting at 10 a.m., but it ended up being cancelled Sunday morning.
“There is going to be some things we can’t control … but we feel like we can really control our mode of operation and how tight we are with our operation,” Interdonato said. “Through two games, our operation was a 9 out of 10 or 10 out of 10, and that will serve us well moving forward.”
Leave a Reply