No. 22 Baseball salvages ugly doubleheader split with NJIT
Well, the fans were probably right.
If you asked 10 BC baseball fans whether or not they thought the NJIT series that had been looming for a while now would do more harm than good, at least nine of them would have said yes.
What was originally a three-game set was knocked down to two, then turned into a doubleheader on Sunday with the rain sweeping through on Saturday. So, the Eagles took the field on Sunday for a couple of ‘tune up’ games against a 15-win squad.
What could go wrong?
Well, the Eagles inexcusably lost the first game 8-7, before ultimately salvaging a split with a 6-3 victory in game two.
No. 22 BC is now 37-16 (17-10 in the ACC) and hosts U-Lowell for another ‘trap game’ on Tuesday before No. 3 Georgia Tech (42-8, winners of five straight, just run-ruled Duke twice) closes out the regular season with three games at Harrington Thursday-Saturday.
Game 1
BC trailed 1-0 after one and 2-0 after two before a Nick Wang sac fly in the third. In the bottom of the fourth, the Eagles got a Kyle Wolff solo homer to left, a Colin Larson RBI triple and an RBI groundout from Julio Solier to take a 4-3 lead.
Unfortunately, as has been the case many times this season, the staff gave it up. NJIT scored five times in the top of the fifth to take an 8-4 lead that they never relinquished.
Brady Miller started and ended up getting the loss, giving up seven runs on nine hits in 4.1 innings pitched. He walked one and struck out five. Cesar Gonzalez went 4.2 innings, giving up a run on four hits with four strikeouts and no walks.
The Eagles did get an RBI ground rule double by Ben Williams in the fifth and an RBI infield single from Luke Gallo in the sixth, but the NJIT was able to close it out.
Game 2
The offense wasted little time trying to atone, with an RBI single by Wolff and RBI double for Esteban Garcia making it 2-0 in the first.
A Colarusso gave up two hits in three scoreless innings and was pulled for Tyler Mudd, who quickly gave up two home runs in the fourth to make it 2-2. Mudd then gave up an RBI single in the fifth and the Eagles were suddenly trailing a 16-win team again.
Any worries of an absolute nightmare-ish scenario were erased in the bottom of the fifth though. A Solier RBI single and RBI doubles for Wang and Gunnar Johnson made it 6-3. A bases loaded balk by NJIT allowed another run to come in during the bottom of the sixth.
Sean Hard, Kyle Kipp and Gavin Soares combined to go five scoreless innings, giving up one hit each. Hard walked two and struck out four. Soares struck out two.
Next up
Ultimately, BC may drop a spot or two in the rankings and the RPI could take a small hit, but at this point it’s more about getting to the dance healthy and with a little momentum than anything else. The Eagles still aren’t assured of the double bye that comes with a top four seed in the upcoming ACC tournament. The U-Lowell game needs to be the ultimate ‘get right’ game before G-Tech rolls in.
As it stands right now (7:58 Sunday night), the Eagles are tied for third with Florida State. Both teams have 36 wins and are 17-10 in the ACC. Miami is closest at 15-12 in the conference. BC is in great shape, but probably still need to take at least one from the Yellow Jackets to be fully comfortable, knowing that even taking one could be a steal this weekend.
