Boston College vs. Louisville: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

Comeback falls just short. Trailing Louisville 3-0 heading into the sixth, it would've been understandable if the later innings saw the doors completely blow open. After all, the Cardinals are one of the best pitching teams in the nation, and the Eagles pitching staff is occasionally susceptible to the big inning.

But Boston College showed rally and fight in scoring two in the top of the frame. Even after the Cardinals got one back to make it 4-2, you'd be foolhardy to believe a ninth inning comeback was possible, but that's exactly what happened. After mustering just three hits for the first eight innings, BC staged a one out rally with a couple of hits. They played smart at the plate and worked counts for walks, and they pushed two runs across against two different pitchers.

Louisville was forced to use three pitchers in the inning, eventually retiring two in order to strand the bases loaded. It wouldn't be enough to win the game, but to be able to come back and show that type of heart is something bad teams sorely lack. And even though the game was lost in extra innings, it showed BC could conceivably make some noise against lesser conference foes.

The Bad

The bats flame out. Even though BC staged the rally, we knew their bats would struggle. Brendan McKay spun seven innings of three-hit shutout ball in the second game for the Cardinals. The bullpen picked up for Josh Rogers after the starter gave up a couple of runs late and destroyed the hope for a rally, and even in the first game, the Eagles left the bases loaded with one out in the ninth. They had just 18 hits on the weekend.

Rainouts. The first game of the series, scheduled for Friday, was postponed to Saturday due to inclement weather in Kentucky. That put BC in a tough spot: after the deflating loss in the first game, they came out in the second game and got smooshed by the Cardinals. I can't say objectively that it was a difference, but it happened so it's worth noting.

At the same time, the weather in Massachusetts didn't help BC. Two potential momentum-building games in the middle of the week are history thanks to the historic snowfall of this past winter. Games against Holy Cross and Bryant would've provided chances to see other players in action as well as provide a chance for players to bat out of their weekend slump. Instead, they have to practice and go right into a home series this weekend against NC State, if that even comes to fruition. We can objectively state that the games this weekend probably won't be on Shea Field, meaning BC is once again forced to play somewhere on neutral ground. If the series is rained out, then they'll have to endure a full week-plus break, which will create some rust against other teams who are moving right along.

The Ugly

Game 2. It was arguably the worst outing of the season so far, with the Eagle pitching staff coughing up 13 runs on 15 hits. The totals are second only to the 16 runs on 21 hits achieved by LSU in the season's second weekend, but coming in conference play, against the top of the BC pitching staff, is just something that stings. Honestly, given the outcome, it sits as a second outlier performance. The problem now becomes if another of these pops up; if it does, BC all of a sudden becomes a team susceptible to a bad performance as opposed to one that just had a couple of bad outings.

Overall, it was a very nondescript weekend. BC went down to Louisville, took its three losses to a team that's just much more polished at the present moment, and came home. In the long run, I don't see this weekend as being a mitigating factor into why they will or won't make the ACC Tournament, and there's still plenty of baseball left on the schedule. A big weekend starts up on Friday against NC State, where BC has to start winning conference games.