On Saturday in Kennesaw, Ga., Boston College baseball played its first doubleheader of the 2023 season, as bad weather postponed its first game on Friday night against Kennesaw State.
And on Saturday, the Eagles (7–1) walked away with two wins over Kennesaw State (5–4), winning the first game 7–4 and the second game 6–2 to extend their win streak to seven games.
The Eagles’ starting pitcher for game two was Chris Flynn, who continued his solid start to the season by tossing five shutout innings and striking out 10 batters. The right-hander only allowed six hits in his third win of the season and has now thrown 17 shutout innings on the season.
Left fielder Cameron Leary got the scoring started early by ripping a double down the left-field line in the second inning, scoring second baseman Patrick Roche. Freshman catcher Adonys Guzman continued the inning with a single to right-center field for his first collegiate RBI, extending the Eagles’ lead to 2–0.
RBI singles from Roche and Leary in the top of the third inning extended the Eagles’ lead to four. Travis Honeyman continued the scoring in the sixth inning after he ripped an RBI double to make it 5–0. A wild pitch then scored Cohl Mercado to put BC up six.
Pitchers Matthew Nunan, Ian Murphy, Sean Hard, and Andrew Roman each threw an inning of relief. Hard gave up two earned runs in the eighth inning from a Jackson Chirello RBI triple and a Zac Corbin RBI single—the only runs allowed by the Eagles’ pitching staff in game two.
Game one featured the Eagles wasting no time offensively, scoring three runs on five hits in the top of the first inning. Designated hitter Mercado led off with a single, which Honeyman followed with an RBI triple to center. Roche then doubled to score Honeyman, and an RBI single from third baseman Nick Wang capped off the first inning three-run outburst.
Junior right-handed pitcher John West started on the hill for the Eagles. In the bottom of the third, West ran into trouble, giving up three earned runs to square up the score at 3–3. Graduate right-handed pitcher Henry Leake replaced West in the third inning, settling in and throwing 2.2 scoreless innings of relief to help secure the eventual win.
Tied at three in the top of the fourth, BC shortstop Vince Cimini singled to right field, scoring Wang. Honeyman then knocked in his second RBI of the game on a fielder’s choice ground ball, extending the Eagles’ lead to 5–3.
Kennesaw State pushed for a comeback in the sixth inning with an RBI double from shortstop Hudson Mimbs off BC sophomore right-handed pitcher Julian Tonghini. Tonghini only lasted a .1 innings, allowing one earned run, two hits, and two walks before Joey Ryan came in in relief and escaped the jam. Ryan tossed 3.2 innings of shutout ball, retiring every batter he faced and striking out eight.
The Eagles added insurance runs in both the seventh and eighth innings—both unearned due to errors from Kennesaw State. Ryan completed his strong performance on the bump and earned the save.
