Looking to go perfect on its weekend road trip, all that Boston College baseball had to do was beat Virginia Commonwealth University on Sunday to go a flawless 3–0. BC was set up to do so when they took an early lead and went up 1–0 in the top of the second inning. Sam McNulty’s grounder scampered past VCU’s shortstop Willaim Bean, sending Vince Cimini home for the Eagles’ first run.
Despite the early score, McNulty’s RBI would be the only run that BC notched for the rest of the afternoon. From that moment on, nothing else went right for the Eagles. VCU’s Brandon Eike singled to left field and brought Nic Ericsson home to tie the game at 1–1 in the bottom of the third.
Then arrived the fifth inning. An inning that came straight out of a nightmare for the Eagles.
After scoring zero runs and only recording one hit in top of the fifth, it was the Eagles turn to play defense. Stephan McLendon replaced Evan Moore on the mound for BC, and subsequently gave up two walks and a hit a batter in four at-bats.
He was quickly replaced by Jordan Fisse, who gave up five of the eight VCU runs of that inning. After Fisse gave up a triple to put VCU up by seven, he was replaced by Gavin Hasche who allowed one of Fisse’s runners to score before the inning finally ended.
The Eagles’ offensive struggles continued for the rest of the ball game and they only recorded failed to cut into the VCU lead. The Rams added one more run at the bottom of the eighth to make the final score 10–1.
The Eagles were led by Nick Wang in hits with two while Autin Hartsell, Kyle Wolff, Cameron Leary, and McNulty all recorded one each.
The Eagles’ had seven different pitchers that gave up 12 hits altogether while only recording seven strikeouts.
The Eagles’ previous matchups of the weekend ended better for them than their last. In their second game of the weekend on Saturday, the Eagles pulled out a tight victory against William & Mary.
The game started in a similar fashion to Sunday’s match, with BC pulling ahead early, only to give up six runs in the bottom of the second. Despite being down by four runs, BC rallied in three consecutive innings to tie the game at 6–6.
Two RBIs from Leary and one from Cimini in the sixth and eighth innings gave BC a lead that they wouldn’t give up and finished the game up 9–7.
Leary and Cam Caraher both recorded multiple hit games with two each, and Wang, McNulty, Cimini, John Collins, Wolff and Patrick Roche each had a hit.
After relieving A.J. Colarusso, Tyler Mudd only allowed one run and recorded eight strikeouts in 4.1 innings pitched.
The Eagles won their first match of the weekend in a more dominant fashion, beating Richmond 7–2. In the top of the second, McNulty recorded two RBIs on a single to left field that sent Caraher and Cimini home and opened up the scoring for BC.
RBIs from Cimini, Pat Landwehr, and Caraher put three more runs on the board for the Eagles in the top of the sixth. Despite Richmond scoring two runs in the seventh inning, any worries of a Richmond comeback were put to rest when a fielding error by Richmond led to two more runs for BC.
Caraher led the offense for the Eagles on Friday, recording three hits and two RBIs. Wang, Wolff, Leary, Cimini, and McNulty each added a hit as well.
BC’s starting pitcher, John West, recorded six strikeouts and allowed no runs in six innings pitched.
