No. 24 Boston College baseball didn’t quite look like itself last time it met UConn. In Wednesday’s rematch, though, the Eagles were right on brand.
A little more than a month ago, BC posted season highs in at-bats, runs, hits, RBIs, and home runs, yielding a 26-run offensive explosion for a win in Storrs. That’s not typical of the Eagles, who have hit the fewest home runs in the ACC—29, 10 fewer than the next-worst team—and hold the worst slugging percentage in the conference.
The rematch wasn’t quite as prolific for BC, but it didn’t matter. The Eagles (28–12, 11–7 Atlantic Coast) have generated plenty of runs—and wins, for that matter—playing their style of baseball.
“Everybody has their own style of play, and when that style of play works, it can strike fear,” BC head coach Todd Interdonato said. “To me, I want our guys to be competitive, I want our guys to be tough, and I want our guys to basically feel like they are going to compete regardless of what’s on the scoreboard. And I feel like our guys have done a really good job of that.”
That’s exactly what the Eagles did in their midweek matchup, stealing five bases and securing an 8–5 victory over UConn (20–18, 6–3 Big East) for BC’s sixth win in seven games.
With the win, the Eagles are now 12–0 in midweek matchups.
“Before the season started, we talked about how if we wanted to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish, the midweeks were just as important as the weekends,” Interdonato said. “I know the weekends get a lot of attention because it’s league play, and we get that, but I have to give our guys a ton of credit, because I can talk about it, but they have to execute it.”
The game started just about 15 hours after Tuesday’s late-night Beanpot win ended.
UConn went up 1–0 in the first inning on an RBI double from Jackson Marshall that bounced off the wall, giving Tyler Minick ample time to start a mad dash from first base and make it home.
BC outdid the Huskies in the bottom of the frame. Julio Solier led off with a single, and Ty Mainolfi followed it up with a single of his own, then sprinted to second while Solier got to third thanks to interference on UConn. That ended up paying off in a big way, as Nick Wang scored Solier with an RBI groundout, and Jack Toomey followed up with a sac fly to score Mainolfi from third and give BC a 2–1 lead.
The Huskies tied things back up in the second, capitalizing on a two-out RBI double into right field. Freshman Luke D’Ancona got the start on the mound for BC, but exited the game in the top of the second. Reliever Chase Hartsell was solid from his first pitch, slicing the ball into the strike zone, then forcing a fielder’s choice to send the game into the bottom of the second tied 2–2.
Luke Gallo made a key defensive play in the top of the fourth, snatching the ball after a bounce and firing it to first base to hand the Huskies their second out. But Cam Righi boomed a triple into right field mere moments later, scoring Rob Rispoli from second. Righi was stranded on third after a groundout from Minick, ending the frame with UConn up 3–2.
After scoring two first-inning runs, BC posted three consecutive scoreless frames, and a second-inning single from Cesar Gonzalez was the Eagles’ only hit during that span. That changed quickly with a three-run fifth inning. It started with Colin Larson drawing a four-pitch walk, then stealing second base.
“The ALS game, when we just slugged our way to a big inning to tie it, it felt very similar to that, that we just kind of slugged our way into a big inning,” Interdonato said. “And I think that’s just making us prove to ourselves [that] we can be dynamic as an offense.”
In the very next at-bat, Solier laced a triple down the right-field line to drive in Larson, tying the game 3–3. Mainolfi scored Solier with a double immediately after, prompting a mound visit for UConn. It didn’t help much, as Wang roped a single on the very next pitch. Mainolfi slid into home base to give the Eagles a 5–3 lead, then somersaulted over in celebration before jogging back to the dugout.
An RBI groundout, followed by a run scoring on a fielding error by first baseman Danny Surowiec, tied the game at five in the top of the seventh. But Wang came to the rescue in the bottom of the frame, hitting his 13th homer of the season for a 7–5 BC lead. Wang is now tied for the third-most homers in program history (37), as well as the fourth-most in the ACC this season.
Toomey pushed the Eagles’ lead to 8–5, running home on a fielder’s choice in the seventh. UConn couldn’t score in the eighth or the ninth, and BC took home a third straight win as it prepared for a weekend series against Duke.
“I will tell you, after the emotion of this weekend—from Friday to Saturday to Sunday, and then the emotion of last night—and for our guys to come out here today and beat a really good team, I think that speaks to how deeply they believe in the importance of these midweeks,” Interdonato said.
