Coming off Saturday’s 8–3 win against the River Hawks, Boston College baseball wanted to do just the same on Sunday afternoon in Lowell, MA.
And the Eagles (25–26, 10–17 Atlantic Coast) did just that. Defeating UMass Lowell (17–32, 8–13 America East) 5–0, the Eagles were able to beat the River Hawks for the fourth-straight time this season.
In Sunday’s outing, it didn’t take too long for BC to get on the board early, either. After a Josiah Ragsdale one-out single to left center, he stole second and third after Jack Toomey struck out swinging.
But BC wasn’t done quite yet, as a Kyle Wolff walk led to Rasgdale advancing home on a fielder’s choice after Wolff threatened to steal second.
As the scoreboard read 1–0, UMass Lowell was unable to come away with anything in the bottom of the first inning.
But just as soon as BC was able to get a run, they went on a scoring drought for the next six innings, as BC maintained a slim 1–0 lead over the River Hawks. Both teams were in an offensive standstill until the top of the seventh inning.
Following a Gunnar Johnson walk, Vince Cimini singled to right field, advancing Johnson on the play. After Sam McNulty delivered a sacrifice bunt, Cimini advanced to second and Johnson advanced to third on the play.
Off a Colin Larson pinch hit for Julio Solier, Larson nailed the ball to the right side of the field, scoring both Johnson and Cimini on the play.
Finally, after six innings, BC was able to come away with some runs.
But UMass Lowell was unable to respond, as BC eventually shut out the River Hawks.
While less eventful than the previous inning, the eighth inning gave BC another opportunity to put another run on the board.
Johnson had himself a day. After singling to left field, Johnson advanced Wolff to second and Toomey ran home—tallying BC’s fourth run of the day.
After three hits and one run with two left on base, the Eagles were smooth sailing going into the final inning. At the bottom of the eighth, the River Hawks had a 1-2-3 inning, unable to get anything going yet again.
Starting off the final inning, both McNulty and Esteban Garcia walked. With McNulty on second and Garcia on first, Larson also walked, bringing McNulty to third and Garcia to second.
It was ultimately Patrick Roche who came away with the RBI, scoring McNulty on the play and giving the Eagles’ their second-straight win with a score of 5–0.
Alfred Mucciarone retired the bottom of the BC batting order in the third inning on seven pitches and headed to the dugout after his third hitless inning. He went from facing the minimum number of batters through three innings to allowing 10 batters to hit in the fourth inning, though.
Two hard-hit singles with no out set up BC for a scoring chance, and Jack Toomey loaded the bases by walking on four pitches.
BC’s RBI and home run leader, Kyle Wolff, uncorked a swing and ripped a foul ball off his body to begin the at-bat. His next swing was just as powerful, and this time the ball was barrelled into left-center field to clear the wall and give BC the 4–3 lead.
Mucciarone did not finish the inning. A walk and a single with two outs scored Beck Milner to give BC a five-run inning. UMass Lowell punctuated a three-run third inning with a two-out RBI triple off the wall, but only had two hits after the rally and fell 8–3.
A.J. Colarusso pitched four innings as a starter, and the bullpen was able to save strength because of four relief innings from JD Ogden. Neither pitcher was remarkably efficient, but Ogden was able to coax weak contact to extend his outing.
Ogden fell behind in the count against nine of the batters he faced. He fell behind all three batters he faced in the seventh inning but was able to get two of them on the next pitch with a pop-up and a ground out.
Ogden also earned a win over UMass Lowell in four innings of pitching on April 23.
Wolff’s grand slam was eventually in the company of more home runs. Jack Toomey pushed a fly ball to the opposite field that ended up near the right-field foul pull. Vince Cimini pulled his homer with more bite than Wolff’s and sent the ball over the left-field wall.
This was BC’s first time homering three times in a game against an ACC opponent. The last game with three BC home runs prior to Saturday was on March 25 against UConn.
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