In the bottom of the fourth inning of Boston College baseball’s matchup against Notre Dame on Sunday afternoon, Notre Dame’s Carson Tinney stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and a 8–0 cushion.
On the 1–1 pitch by Eric Schroeder, the ball flew over the outside part of the plate, where it met the bat of Tinney, who obliterated the ball the other way, well over the right field wall. Tinney’s grand slam summed up a weekend of frustration and mistakes for the Eagles.
BC (20–19, 7–14 Atlantic Coast) fell in both Saturday and Sunday’s game against rival Notre Dame (20–18, 5–16) due to both poor pitching and cold bats that could not gather any momentum.
The Fighting Irish stormed out the gate in the bottom of the first inning of Sunday’s game. Estevan Moreno jumped on a fastball hanging over the plate, sending the ball well over the centerfield wall for a two-run home run.
Immediately after Moreno, Simon Baumgardt crushed a solo home run of his own to right field against BC starter A.J. Colarusso, providing Notre Dame with an early 3–0 advantage.
In the second inning, the situation continued to worsen for BC. Notre Dame scored their fourth run of the game on a fielder’s choice, and for the second time in the game, Moreno blasted a two-run home run, extending the lead to six runs.
While BC’s pitching continued to struggle, their offense struggled even more.
Through three innings, the only offensive progress the Eagles achieved was through Adam Magpoc, who was hit by a pitch in the first inning and walked in the third inning.
Through stellar pitch placement the entire afternoon, Tobey McDonough, Rory Fox, Sammy Cooper, and Will Jacobsen held BC to zero hits for the game—by far the Eagles’ worst offensive performance of the season.
To make matters worse, after finally pitching a clean inning without allowing a run in the third inning, the wheels fell off for the Eagles in the bottom of the fourth.
With Schroeder pitching for the Eagles, Jack Penney hit a lead-off home run that increased the lead to 7–0 for the Irish. Three batters later, Tito Flores hit a scorching double to left field, giving Notre Dame another run.
Carson Tinney stuck the dagger into BC’s heart with a grand slam later in the inning, putting the Irish in front by a whopping 12 runs. An RBI single for Penney off closed out a seven run inning.
At that point, the game was all over. BC’s players appeared dejected and exhausted as nothing seemed to go their way.
While the Eagles’ pitching improved drastically over the next three innings, the game ended in the seventh inning as a result of the NCAA’s run rule, and BC suffered a 13–0 defeat to Notre Dame, completing the weekend sweep.
Saturday’s game between the two teams was similar.
BC struck the first blow in the top of the first inning by virtue of a Kyle Wolff ground ball that allowed Magpoc to score.
The lead was short lived, though, as Notre Dame responded with a flurry in the bottom of the first. David Glancy crushed a two-run home run to right field to put Notre Dame on top. Baumgardt and Flores each tallied an RBI in the inning to extend the Irish lead to 4–1.
Still, BC responded in the third inning through a Magpoc home run to right field and an RBI by Vince Cimini to cut Notre Dame’s lead to one.
However, Notre Dame’s offense proved too much to handle for the Eagles in the third and fifth innings.
Brady Gumpf provided the Irish a three-run cushion with a two-run homer to center field in the third inning. In the fifth, TJ Williams, Glancy, and Penney each hit RBI singles to stretch the lead to 9–3.
Magpoc’s second RBI of the game in the seventh inning was not enough to gain any momentum, and BC fell to Notre Dame 9–4.
Throughout the three-game series, BC pitching allowed 36 runs, while its offense scored only seven.
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