During the top of the fourth, as the winds began to pick up and the weather turned bleaker, so did the Eagles’ chances of victory against the Huskies. That inning opened up with two walks and a hit-by-pitch for the Huskies and ended with the Eagles down by 11, including letting up a Connor Lane home run just as the first drops of rain began to fall.
Boston College baseball (17–19, 7–11 Atlantic Coast) faced off against Connecticut (18–17, 5–4 Big East) on Tuesday afternoon at Harrington Athletics Village, losing 21–9 to the Huskies. Their last matchup resulted in an 18–6 victory for the Eagles, and hopes were high for a midweek win before moving on to face Wake Forest this weekend.
But those hopes quickly faded.
BC’s starting pitcher Jacob Burnham opened the game with a walk, and just after he finally managed a strike, UConn’s Caleb Shpur hit a home run to bring himself and Rob Rispoli home, giving the Huskies a two-run lead from their first two batters.
When the Eagles came up to bat, a hit-by-pitch for Patrick Roche and a walk for Josiah Ragsdale put them on base before Jack Toomey came up to bat. A quick bunt up the left side advanced the two into scoring position, and Kyle Wolff’s two-RBI single tied the score at 2–2 after the first inning.
The second inning continued in much the same way. UConn went up one after a single from Rispoli that just evaded a diving Adam Magpoc, allowing Grant MacArthur to sneak home.
Then, in the bottom half of the frame, Magpoc himself knocked a double, stole third, and then scored on a hitting error to tie the game.
“We couldn’t get them off their rhythm on offense,” BC head coach Todd Interdonato said. “Jacob went out, one, two, walking first batters of the game ended up walking in. I thought he did a pretty good job through the next two, but I felt like we needed a change.”
In the top of the third, BC brought in Karl Meyer to pitch, who couldn’t keep Tyler Minick from doubling and making it home from Bryan Padilla’s single.
Meyer was shortly thereafter replaced by John Kwiatkowski. Despite pitching changes, nothing could rattle UConn. The Huskies racked up consecutive runs from Sam Biller, Padilla, and Lane to put the Huskies up 8–3.
Ragsdale was first to bat for the Eagles in the third inning and smacked a triple. He was brought home by Wolff, cutting the deficit to four. Later in the third, the bases were loaded for Vince Cimini, who brought home Toomey. Wolff then made his way home, ending the third at 6–8.
It seemed it was going to be a competitive game, with the Eagles doing their best to shut down each of the Huskies’ advances.
That is, until the fourth inning began. BC got rid of Kwiatkowski in favor of JD Ogden just as the clouds began to roll in.
As the weather began to turn for the worse, Bryan Padilla doubled, allowing Biller, Dougherty, and Minick to score. UConn followed up with a single to bring home Padilla and followed that with the home run from Lane, bringing the score to 15–6 in just three at-bats.
As the wind picked up, the pitching visibly suffered, allowing runs from Rispoli and Shpur. BC once again changed pitchers, bringing in Matthew Spada to pitch the end of the fourth.
When the Eagles finally got back on offense, they failed to take advantage of the opportunity, recording two outs on consecutive at-bats. Ragsdale came up to bat and launched a home run, bringing the score to 17–7. But UConn struck out the following batter to end the inning.
The top of the fifth saw another MacArthur run for the Huskies, this time off a home run. Spada then tossed BC’s first strikeout of the game.
The fifth saw another single-run inning for BC, courtesy of Esteban Garcia, who was brought in as a pinch hitter and recorded a single to score Wolff.
Even more pitching errors plagued the top of the sixth. Most notably, Spada hitting MacArthur, which brought Minick home and the score to 19–8.
“We were not able to land off-speed pitches consistently,” Internado said. “I felt like that kept them in a rhythm, and that was the big difference.”
Roche hit a double to open up the Eagles’ sixth inning and then stole third. When Wolff came up to bat, he brought Roche home to close the gap, but it wouldn’t be enough, as the Eagles left the inning still down 10.
Once again, the Eagles brought in a new pitcher for the seventh, Joe Gold. But to no avail, a single from Dougherty scored runs from Shpur and Lane. The scoreboard ticked to 21–9, where it remained for the remainder of UConn’s victory.
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