BC Baseball Wins Wild ACC Tourney Opener
Relentless.
It's the only proper word to describe this 2023 Birdball team.
The sixth-seeded Eagles won a back-and-forth slugfest 11-7 against 10th-seeded Virginia Tech in the first game of the ACC tournament on Tuesday morning. Joe Vetrano and Nick Wang combined to go 4-6 with three doubles, four walks and nine RBI, including five from Wang. Barry Walsh was also huge both offensively and defensively with a solo home run and some fantastic catches in center.
BC (35-17) can guarantee itself a spot in a semifinal game on Saturday with a win over third-seeded Clemson on Friday morning (11 A.M.). Clemson also beat Virginia Tech, so the Eagles must win to get to 2-0 and advance. Despite also being 1-1 if the Tigers win, Clemson would advance with the tiebreaker being the higher seed in Pool Play.
"Good ballgame, good ballgame," said head coach Mike Gambino. "Obviously, Virginia Tech's really good. That's a scary offense. Those guys can thump...everybody's going to talk about Joe Vetrano and Nick Wang, but, Barry Walsh changed this game multiple times today. Not just the one he hit over the fence, but the one he brought back and two other really good, spectacular plays.
"I'm glad being in the postseason that the rest of the country is going to get to see how elite of a defender Barry Walsh is...good win top to bottom and some of the stuff not showing up (in the box score) is the difference in the game."
This one was a seesaw battle right from the first inning when Virginia Tech plated a run off starter Eric Schroeder. Schroeder was one of five arms used by BC in this bullpen game. In the top of the third with Ian Murphy in, Virginia Tech grabbed a 3-0 lead on. three-run home run, but the fun was just starting. Barry Walsh made a leaping catch at the centerfield wall to finally end the inning and sparked BC.
Back-to-back two out singles eventually led to a two-run double for Vetrano, cutting it to 3-2. Moments later, Wang followed with a two-out, two-run double to left of his own off the "blue monster" in Durham, NC, which is 32 feet high and a blue version of the Green Monster and BC suddenly led 4-3 with all the two-out magic.
The Hokies answered right back in the fourth with two runs after forcing Henry Leake into the game. BC loaded the bases with one out in the fifth, but couldn't get anyone in, a rare missed opportunity on a day full of them, but it wouldn't matter for long.
In the sixth, Walsh continued his big day with a solo home run to left center, cutting it to 6-5. Former Wellesley pitcher Henry Weycker came in and was quickly greeted with two one-out singles. After an intentional walk to Vetrano and a line out to second, Wang did it again with a bases clearing double down the third base line, giving the Eagles an 8-6 lead.
Andrew Roman came on for the seventh and eventually closed the game out for BC, but not before a scare.
The Hokies put two on in the seventh and got one run when Roman seemingly got the final out of the inning in a pop up between short and third, but both Wang and Sam McNulty lost it in the sun, allowing the ball to drop and a run to score. A very deep fly out to center eventually ended the threat. A single, sacrifice bunt, groundout to first, an intentional walk, a Cam Leary pinch-hit walk and then a two-run bloop single to right for Vetrano in the bottom of the inning gave BC some cushion at 10-7. Cohl Mercado added an RBI single in the eighth and fittingly, Walsh made a diving catch for the game's final out on a sinking line drive in center.
BC is already NCAA-tournament bound no matter what happens on Friday, but one more win this weekend might just lock up the opportunity to host a regional for the first time ever, if this one didn't already.
"It would mean a lot," said Walsh about the idea of hosting a regional. "For us, it's what we've worked for all year. We've got guys that show up every day and give everything to this team. It would mean a lot to bring a regional to Boston."