Boston College baseball’s wild pitching and hitting adventure continues in Beanpot win

Congratulations to the Boston College baseball team, which won the Baseball Beanpot last night with a 14-10 win over UMass-Amherst.

The final took place on BC’s home field in Brighton, where the Eagles fell behind 7-2 before staging a furious rally, scoring two runs in each of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th innings, then piling on for four more in the 8th.

BC is now 15-18 on the season, with 21 games still to be played. BC is locked into a dogfight to qualify for the 12th and final spot in the ACC tournament, tied for 12th right now with Duke.

The story of the Baseball Beanpot was a reflection of the overall story for the Eagles this year: a barrage of offense, with struggles on the mound.

If it feels to you from lightly following the team that every game features repeated crooked numbers on both sides, your feeling is backed up by the stats. BC is averaging 7.7 runs per game, good for 57th nationally, including 51 home runs - top 6 in the ACC.

Meanwhile, on the pitching side, it’s been a constant struggle: the Eagles’ 7.89 ERA is 267th in the nation out of 293 teams.

Among ACC peers, BC has given up the most hits, the most runs (by 56!), the most walks, and the most homers. Opponents are batting .299 against Eagle pitching. The only Eagles with sub-5 ERAs and more than 8 innings pitched are Max Gieg - last night’s winner, who’s been a bit of a revelation with a 1.84 ERA and .208 batting average against in 10 appearances mostly out of the bullpen; and Brendan Coffey, who has a 3.50 ERA in 13 relief outings.

It’s a continuation of a trend in recent years.

In 2021, BC was 7th in the ACC in team batting average, while being 14th in batting average against. In ‘19, BC was 4th in the league in hitting; 11th in opponents’ average.

If BC can stabilize its pitching down the stretch, they should be in a position to rack up some more ACC wins and make the conference tournament, but it’s a big “if.” They do have players capable of it. Mason Pelio posted a 3.63 ERA in 13 starts his freshman year, Joe Mancini’s talent has earned him invites to the FCBL and the Cape League, and other BC pitchers have shown glimmers of success, like Luke Delongchamp, who pitched 5 solid innings in a win against Northeastern two weeks back.

We know this team can hit. BC has four players in the top 30 in the ACC in batting average, paced by Luke Gold’s .360 mark with 6 homers. Gold also leads the league with 16 doubles. Cameron Leary’s 13 homers are good for 3rd in the ACC, and Joe Vetrano is not far behind with 11 of his own.

With a piece of hardware in the books, let’s hope BC can keep up its momentum at the plate — while also settling in on the mound. If they do, they can make some noise.