Boston College Baseball Takes One Of Three From Maryland; Finishes Year 12-40

Despite starting the weekend series with a win on Thursday, Birdball dropped the final two games of the series -- the finale in extra innings -- to finish the year with a record of 12-40 overall and 4-25 in the ACC. I chalk the series loss up to the fact that BC doesn't have this super awesome promo video.

Lol.

Back to our own crummy baseball team, Boston College finishes with the worst record by winning percentage in program history -- 12 up and 40 down (.231), besting the 1978 season's mark of 6-18 (.250). Extrapolated over a 162-game season, BC would have won just 37 games. That's six games back of the 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119), the worst MLB program of the 162-game season era.

As one would expect, the Eagles' season-ending statistics are predictably terrible. The Eagles hit .206 as a team. Eight batters finished the year at or below the Mendoza line, including senior outfielder Matt McGovern (.168). The pitching wasn't much better. The team's final ERA: 5.38. Opposing batters hit .292 during the year, .086 percentage points higher than the Eagles. Andrew Chin and Eric Stevens combined to start 26 of the Eagles' 52 games this year, winning just one game between the two (1-20).

The program was eliminated from the postseason weeks ago, but for the sixth time in the program's eight years in the ACC, the ACC Baseball Championship goes on without Boston College. The only programs that have missed the championship more than BC since 2006 are Duke (seven of eight times) and Maryland (all eight years).

ACC Baseball Championship - Programs Not Participating By Year, 2006-2013

2006: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech
2007: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech
2008: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech
2009: Maryland, N.C. State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
2010: Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, Wake Forest
2011: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech
2012: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech
2013: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Wake Forest

This year is the final season of the eight game Championship format as the tournament expands to 10 teams with the additions of Notre Dame and Pittsburgh in 2014.

The question becomes what new AD Brad Bates will do with the program. Does he fire Gambino given this year's results and the four-year body of work? Or does he find more funding to bring the Eagles' coaching staff in line with the rest of the conference? When will the school break ground on the program's new baseball/softball stadium on Brighton Campus?

As an outsider looking in, it would seem that the team quit on Gambino and that retaining him would only set the program back even further. Looking at the larger picture, I'm not sure BC can afford to wait another year before making a move. The ACC is only going to get more difficult with Notre Dame and Pittsburgh joining next season, and Louisville in 2015, though this will mean BC will face one less program from the much stronger Coastal Division in 2014 (this year, BC missed Virginia (45-9, 22-8 ACC) from the other division). The following season, the conference's worst post-expansion baseball program, Maryland, is jettisoned for Louisville, which is eyeing this year's Big East title and another NCAA Tournament berth.

If the program aspires to ACC competitiveness, it makes sense to part with Gambino now, find a new coach with prior head coaching experience and fund a full coaching staff. While Bates was not here at the end of the 2011 football season, hopefully there's enough of an institutional memory within the athletics department to not make the same mistake twice with the baseball program.