The last time Boston College baseball and Maine met on the diamond, the Black Bears took an early lead, just to see BC claw its way to a comeback victory. On Tuesday, Maine took a 2–0 first-inning lead once again—only this time, they held the Eagles off.
The Black Bears (12–24, 7–5 America East) never trailed and used a ninth-inning home run to take down the No. 22 Eagles 6–4. The loss is the Eagles’ (31–13, 14–7 Atlantic Coast) first in a midweek matchup this season and ends their seven-game winning streak.
“This game’s really hard, right?” BC head coach Todd Interdonato said. “That’s our first midweek loss this year. So our guys, they played really hard, they played really tough. We were right there. We had a chance to win it a couple times and didn’t do it, and they had a chance to win it, and they did.”
The Eagles were able to get runners on base but struggled to bring them home. BC stranded 13 runners on base and left the bases loaded three times.
“We had some really good at-bats,” Interdonato said. “I thought we put ourselves in a position to score a bunch, and just never got the hit.”
BC’s Jacob Burnham hit Nic Pepe with the first pitch of the game, and a pair of singles later, Maine had runners on the corners and a 1–0 lead. A sac fly doubled Maine’s lead, and after giving up a third single, Burnham escaped the inning.
Both teams drew a walk as their only baserunner in the second, then Troy Carpenter extended Maine’s lead to kick off the third. America East’s home run leader displayed his power, launching a ball over the right-field fence to make it 3–0 Black Bears. Sean Hard relieved Burnham in the top of the fourth and walked the first batter he faced, but forced a flyout to end the scoring threat.
BC got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth. Carter Hendrickson started things off with a double, and Luke Gallo singled him home. Then Gallo stole second, and Colin Larson walked to put two runners on. Julio Solier responded by lining his second single of the day up the middle to make it 3–2.
Maine brought in Jack Donlin to try to hold the lead, but he hit Ty Mainolfi with a pitch to load the bases, then Nick Wang drew a four-pitch walk to tie the game 3–3. Jack Toomey flew out in the next at-bat, and the game headed to the fifth with things knotted up.
Maine immediately retook the lead, thanks to a pair of doubles from Hunter St. Denis and Albert De La Rosa. BC turned to John Kwiatkowski in the top of the sixth to keep the Eagles within striking distance, and he delivered, working BC’s first 1-2-3 inning of the day.
Carpenter continued his strong day at the plate in the seventh, welcoming reliever Gavin Soares to the game with a leadoff single. Soares settled in after that, working around another single with a pair of fielders’ choices and a batter’s interference to keep it 4–3. But the bottom of the seventh was a familiar story for the Eagles. They loaded the bases, but for the third time in the game, were unable to turn that progress into a run.
Cesar Gonzalez took the mound for BC in the top of the eighth, working a three-up, three-down inning with a pair of strikeouts. The Eagles’ offense rewarded the bullpen’s efforts in the bottom of the eighth, as a leadoff double by Mainolfi and a sac fly from Wang tied the game at 4–4.
After three scoreless innings, Maine’s offensive leaders came through when it mattered most. With one out, Carpenter singled through the left side of the infield for his fourth hit of the game to bring up Juju Stevens. Stevens turned on the first pitch of his at-bat and hit a homer over the left-field fence to put Maine up 6–4 headed to the bottom of the ninth.
“Cesar left one pitch up to their three-hole kid, and the kid hit it on the hill,” Interdonato said. “He made a mistake, but like, he punished them for it too. So, you know you got to give them a ton of credit.”
Gallo looked to start a ninth-inning rally with a leadoff walk, but Danny Surowiec grounded into a double play. Gunnar Johnson came up as the Eagles’ final hope, but struck out swinging as the Black Bears earned the upset win.
“[That loss], it just happens, right?” Interdonato said. “There’s some things that we need to get better at. There’s some things that we need to learn from that game, and then we’ll move on for this weekend.”
