Boston College Baseball Midweek Recap - UConn

The Boston College bats stayed mostly silent on Tuesday afternoon, as the Eagles mustered only a pair of hits in a 4-0 loss to the UConn Huskies at the new Brighton Stadium, dropping their midweek record to 0-3 since an 8-0 victory over UNC Asheville on Tuesday, March 6th.

Boston College starter Matt Gill pitched well on the day, scattering four hits over four innings without allowing a run, but, unfortunately, he and the bullpen received little help from an offense that had been on a tear early this season. With the Eagles’ hitters held at bay for 8.2 innings by their starter Jeff Kersten, the UConn offense scored a pair of runs in the sixth, on four straight singles and sacrifice fly, and another pair in the ninth, on three walks, a wild pitch, and sacrifice bunt. Though they advanced a runner to second base in the bottom of the frame, the Eagles went quietly, without pushing a run across the plate, ending the game. Senior Jake Palomaki and junior Gian Martellini were the only two Eagles to record hits on the afternoon, as each went 1 for 3 in the game.

Some Thoughts:

Well, the issue in this game is pretty obvious: there was no offensive output on the Eagles’ part this afternoon and, though they were the beneficiaries of decent pitching, that makes it extremely difficult to beat anybody. Before I get into some of the nitty gritty inside the box score, I do want to point out that, though the bullpen again shouldered the loss today, the pitchers who came on in relief, as a whole, threw well enough to keep their team in the game. Granted, there were a couple individual performances on the mound that I’m sure head coach Mike Gambino wished hadn’t happened, but generally speaking, if your staff can hold an offensive-minded opponent, like UConn, to only four runs during the midweek, you should be able to be competitive and give your team an opportunity to win the game. Unfortunately today, the hits weren’t falling and it wasn’t for a lack of balls in play. Looking at the box score, the Eagles’ batters struck out only twice on the afternoon and only walked twice, which means, aside from those four plate appearances, the ball was put into play every time a BC batter was at the plate. Now, that’s not to say that every other at bat besides those four featured a hard hit ball that the UConn defense robbed, but it means that the Eagles’ offensive approach did not change today and was still aggressive, which I think is a good thing heading into the series at Clemson this weekend. Is the fact that only two of those balls in play “found daylight” concerning to me? A little, but I’d be more worried if BC lost this game 4-0 with 12 strikeouts. It’s never fun to lose, and an even worse feeling knowing you lost a very winnable game to a rival, but with a hugely important trip to South Carolina coming up on Thursday, BC needs to flush this one quickly and focus on the Tigers.