Boston College baseball had a tough Sunday afternoon, to say the least.
The Eagles (11–11, 3–6 Atlantic Coast) dropped their game to conference-foe No. 17 North Carolina 10–0, suffering their second shutout loss of the season.
But BC bounced back in a big way on Tuesday, beating Connecticut (10–12) 18–6 in eight innings while setting season highs in runs, hits, and margin of victory.
After falling behind 4–0 to begin the game, the Eagles picked things up in the middle innings, scoring at least one run from the fourth inning on and shutting out the Huskies in three of those frames.
BC’s offense started to heat up in the fourth inning against UConn pitcher Jude Abbadessa, who entered the game in the third inning to relieve starter Hector Alejandro.
Nick Wang started the rally with a sharp leadoff single up the middle, setting the stage for Sam McNulty’s two-run blast to right field to make it 4–2 Huskies.
The Huskies once again instituted a pitching change, but that didn’t change anything for a searing BC offense. Owen DeShazo walked and then stole second, and Josiah Ragsdale brought him home with another two-run homer that tied the game.
UConn managed to put one run on the board in the bottom of the fourth, but the Eagles followed that up with another strong offensive showing.
Jack Toomey and Vince Cimini led off with consecutive singles before Wang reached on a bunt that UConn’s pitcher threw away, allowing Toomey to score and give BC its first lead.
Then, Esteban Garcia’s pinch-hit, two-RBI single up the middle stretched the Eagles’ lead to two.
BC broke the game open in the sixth when Wang launched a three-run homer to right field, his second of the season, scoring Patrick Roche and Cimini to put BC up 10–5.
The Eagles added a run in the seventh on Gunnar Johnson’s solo shot before sending 11 batters to the plate in a seven-run eighth inning that featured five hits, three walks, and three UConn errors.
While its offense was clearly its dominant feature in the win, BC’s pitching staff turned in one of its strongest collective performances of the season.
Starter Brady Miller worked through three innings before handing things over to Kyle Kipp, who earned the win in three innings of relief.
John Kwiatkowski closed the game with two 1-2-3 innings to secure the win.
Defensively, the Eagles played clean baseball behind their pitchers, turning five double plays.
Meanwhile, UConn struggled in all phases, with its pitchers combining to walk seven batters and throw four wild pitches, while the defense committed four errors, leading to four unearned runs.
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