Boston College baseball continued their hot start, defeating the University of Central Florida Knights yesteday 8-7 in Orlando, Florida. BC starter Brian Adkins struggled, allowing four runs and eight hits in three innings. But it was hte bullpen that kept the Eagles in the game. Relief pitcher sophomore Matt Alavarez went three innings, allowing only one unearned run, while striking out three.
UCF got on the board first scoring Darnell Sweeney after he singled, and scored on an error by BC 3rd basman John Hennessy. BC got on the board in the 3rd with a blitz of runs, instead of recapping it myself, I will give you the run down fresh from BCEagles.com:
The Eagles took the lead in the third, scoring four runs on six singles. Butera started things off with a single to center. Junior Matt McGovern laid a bunt down the first-base line, beat the throw and both runners advanced on the throwing error by Adkins. With runners on the corners, sophomore Tom Bourdon plated Butera on a base hit to right center. Senior Anthony Melchionda followed with a scorcher back to the pitcher, which scored McGovern. Adkins struck two out, but junior Matt Paré was able to knock one to center, scoring Bourdon. Senior Spenser Payne capped it off with a gapper to right center, plating Melchionda for the 4-1 lead.
The Knights came back though quickly:
Facing a 5-1 deficit, the Knights put up multiple runs for the second-straight game in the fifth frame. Junior Chris Taladay (Windermere, Fla.) doubled down the right-field line, his first of 2012, and was followed by a Ryan Breen (Palm City, Fla.) single to center to put men on the corners. Freshman James Vasquez (Palm City, Fla.) came through with a RBI groundout, and UCF got its second run of the inning after Carrillo hit a strike to the shortstop who bobbled the ball, allowing Breen to score from third.
In the sixth, UCF struck for more after a leadoff single by Darnell Sweeney (Miramar, Fla.) and a Ronnie Richardson (Eagle Lake, Fla.) walk set up Taladay who sent a shot to shallow right to bring home Sweeney for his second run scored of the day.
BC took the lead for good in the fifth with Marc Pedrios scoring a run off a hit from Matt Parre.
For a team that was projected to struggle, BC has started off the season on the right foot. Yesterday was already their third victory against a ranked team, and they The teams have split their first two games, and will complete the series today at noon.