Boston College baseball was not in a great spot as it headed into Sunday’s series finale against No. 18 Louisville. The Eagles were defeated in both games of the Friday doubleheader between the two teams, and were mercy-ruled in the second of those losses.
All of the momentum seemed to be in the Cardinals’ hands.
That’s how the game ended, too—with the momentum hidden away in Louisville’s (24–7, 8–4 Atlantic Coast) dugout and the Eagles (13–17, 5–10) unable to grasp even a sliver of it, as BC lost 12–1 in seven innings.
The Cardinals opened the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the first inning with BC pitcher A.J. Colarusso on the mound.
A fielding error by Colarusso early in the inning eventually led to two unearned runs—an RBI sacrifice fly, then an RBI single from Jake Munroe down the left field line that extended the Cardinals’ early lead to two.
Freshman Tague Davis added on to the Cardinals hot start with a two strike, 368 foot home run in the second inning. It would be the start of a big day at the plate for Davis.
During the third inning, the Eagles were able to respond with a run of their own thanks to a left-center double that came flying off the bat of Josiah Ragsdale and scored Patrick Roche.
The Cardinals wasted no time responding, though.
The bottom of the fourth inning started with a back-to-back walk and single for Louisville. Tyler Mudd took over for Colarusso, but hit the first batter he faced with a pitch. Then, with the bases loaded, Alicea hit an RBI groundout.
Mudd hit yet another batter with a pitch at that point. Then, with two outs on the board and the bases loaded, Zion Rose ripped a single up the middle that scored two and extended Louisville’s lead to five.
BC struggled to respond at all, suffering a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the fifth.
Although the Eagles were able to force the Cardinals into consecutive silent innings in the fifth and sixth innings, the seventh inning was not nearly as clean of a performance from BC’s defense.
After a 1-2-3 top of the inning, the Cardinals’ offense went to work in the bottom of the seventh, scoring six runs and ending the game in seven innings thanks to the NCAA’s run rule.
The Cardinals offense was clicking. A single, a walk, a double, two more singles, and a home run all happened in the blink of an eye as every Louisville batter ended up on base.
It was a three-RBI homer down the leftfield line from Tague Davis that sealed the deal for the Cardinals, extending the lead to 11 and ending the game 12–1 in Louisville’s favor.
Davis was integral for the Cardinals’ Sunday victory. He went three-for-four at bat and picked up a game-high four RBIs to go along with three runs and two home runs.
Another bright spot for the Cardinals was their pitching. Starting pitcher Peter Michael allowed just one earned run and four hits in six innings of action. Reliever Justin West closed out the game, picking up three straight strikeouts in one inning on the mound.
The Eagles could not muster any offensive firepower against the Cardinals’ pitching scheme. As a team, BC mustered four hits in 22 at-bats and suffered seven strikeouts to Louisville’s three.
The Eagles’ pitching staff also had difficulty finding success, allowing eleven hits in 24 at-bats.
Offensively for the Eagles, outfielder Jack Toomey was a rare exception to the Eagles’ immense struggles at the plate. Toomey was two for three on the day, and the only BC player to record more than one hit in the loss.
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