During the top of the fourth, as the winds began to pick up and the weather turned bleaker, so did the Eagles chances of victory against the Huskies. That inning opened up with two walks and a hit by pitch for the Huskies and ended with the Eagles down by 11, including a homerun from Connor Lane, just as the first drops of rain began to fall.
Boston College baseball (17–19, 7–11 Atlantic Coast) faced off against Connecticut (18–17, 5–4 Big East) on Tuesday afternoon at Harrington Athletics Village. Their last match up resulted in a 18–6 victory for the Eagles, and hopes were high for a midweek win before moving on to face Wake Forest this weekend.
But those hopes quickly faded.
BC’s starting pitcher Jacob Burnham opened the game with a walk, and just after he finally managed a strike, UConn’s Caleb Shpur hit a homerun to bring himself and Rob Rispoli home, giving the Huskies a two-point jump from their first two batters.
When the Eagles came up to bat, an HBP for Patrick Roche and a walk for Josiah Ragsdale put them on base when Jack Toomey came up to bat. A quick bunt up the left side advanced the two into scoring positions and Kyle Wolff’s 2 RBI single tied the score at 2-2 after the first inning.
The second inning continued in much the same way. UConn went up one after a single from Rispoli that just evaded a diving Adam Magpoc, allowing Grant MacArthur to sneak home. Then, Magpoc himself knocked a double, stole third, and then scored on a hitting error to tie the game.
“We couldn’t get them off their rhythm on offense,” BC head coach Todd Interdonato said. “Jacob went out, one, two walking first batters of the game ended up walking in. I thought he did a pretty good job through the next two, but I felt like we needed a change.”
In the top of the third, BC brought in Karl Meyer to pitch, who couldn’t keep Tyler Minick from doubling and making it home from Bryan Padilla’s single.
Meyer was shortly thereafter replaced by John Kwiatkowski. Despite pitching changes, nothing could rattle UConn. The Huskies raked up consecutive runs from Sam Biller, Padilla, and Connor Lane to bring the Huskies up 8-3.
Ragsdale was first at bat for the Eagles and earned a triple. He was brought home by Wolff, cutting the lead down to four. Deeper in the third, the bases were loaded when Vince Cimini came up to bat, bringing a run for Toomey followed by one for Wolff, ending the third at 6-8.
It seemed like it was going to be a competitive game, with the Eagles doing their best to shut down each of the Huskies advances.
That is, until the fourth inning began. BC got rid of Kwiatkowski in favor of JD Ogden just as the clouds began to roll in.
As the weather began to turn for the worse, Bryan Padilla doubled allowing Biller, Dougherty, and Minick to score. UConn followed this up with a single to bring home Padilla and followed that with the homerun from Lane, bringing the score up 15-6 in just three at bats.
As the wind picked up, the pitching visibly suffered, allowing runs from Rispoli and Shpur. BC once again changed pitchers here, bringing in Matthew Spada to pitch the end of the fourth.
When the Eagles finally got at bat, they failed to take advantage of the opportunity, getting two outs after the first two batters. Ragsdale came up to bat and banged out a homerun, bringing the score to 17–7. But UConn struck out the following batter to end the inning.
The top of the fifth saw another MacArthur run for the Huskies, this time off of a homerun. Towards the end, Spada threw BC’s very first strike out of the game.
The fifth saw another single run inning for BC, courtesy of Esteban Garcia, who was brought in as a pinch hitter, and he recorded a single and allowed Wolff to score.
The top of the sixth was plagued by even more pitching errors. Most notably, Spada hitting MacArthur and that walk bringing Minick home and the score to 19–8.
“We were not able to land off speed pitches consistently,” Internado said. “I felt like that kept them in a rhythm and that was the big difference.”
Roche scored a double to open up the Eagles’ sixth inning and then stole third. When Wolff came up to bat, he made it in to allow Roche to make it home for the Eagles.
Once again, the Eagles brought in a new pitcher for the seventh, Joe Gold. But to no avail, a single from Dougherty scored runs from Shpur and Lane. The score was put to 21–9 where it remained for UConn’s ultimate victory.
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