It's another big day for a BC athletic program on Friday.
Birdball makes history with the team's first NCAA Regional appearance in seven years when the 24th-ranked Eagles (second seed in the Tuscaloosa bracket) takes on Troy at 3 P.M.
BC (35-18) believes it can make some noise again on the national stage. The last time BC was here (2016), the Eagles went through Tulane (twice) and Utah in Oxford before ultimately falling to Miami. All time, BC is 23-23 in NCAA tournament play and this will be the program's 13th appearance in the field.
"Pretty exciting place to be," head coach Mike Gambino told the media in Alabama on Thursday. "I think we as a ball club are excited. There's a ton of history here in this ballpark and this program (Alabama) and that being said, we're excited for the chance to try and come through this regional.It's not like a 'we're just happy to be here' moment, but we're very excited to be able to play in a ballpark like this, potentially in front of fans like this. You hear the names that have come through this town and this ballpark, it's a pretty special place...the hospitality has been great, the ribs were very good..."
The Eagles can't afford to look past the 39-20 Trojans. Troy will have righty Grayson Stewart starting (9-2, 3.55) while BC counters with John West (5-3, 4.52). West's ridiculous performance in the ACC tournament against Clemson after his special night at Fenway days earlier could propel him into another big outing on Friday. Troy has four guys hitting .300 or better and a few guys hovering around that mark between .292-.278 and four guys with double digit home runs. As a team, they hit 102 on the season, led by 27 from Shane Lewis. Lewis had 76 RBI and hit .291 in all 59 games for the Trojans this year.
"I think it's going to be a really, really good matchup between two good ball clubs," Gambino added.
BC should be prepared for the crowds it'll see this weekend too. Sellouts should be the norm for each game this weekend in the double-elimination format. Getting off to a hot start is imperative.
"We're used to playing in front of packed houses," said Gambino. "The ACC or the SEC, it's what we're used to. Wake was banged out. Carolina was banged out. Clemson's banged out every time you go there. This place is going to be great. SEC fans are awesome. They're so much fun to play in front of. We were at Tennessee this year. I think we're excited to experience it."
"Yeah, we're super pumped added Joe Vetrano, BC's answer to Lewis. "It kind of goes back to what we talked about in the fall, it's the same every single day whether there's no fans or packed out. We're just going to come compete and I know we're all looking forward to this, for sure."
"We're definitely not too shy of SEC experience," said West. "Freshman year we went down to Auburn. Covid a little different, but there was still some fans there. This year, earlier this year at Tennessee. SEC, ACC, we're used to playing out on the road in front of packed crowds. Like Joe said, we play the same either way and we're definitely excited to play in front of a really passionate fan base. We're looking forward to it."
Alabama will play Nicholls at 7 P.M. on Friday. Both winners will play Saturday, as will both losers. On Sunday, the winner of Game 4 will play the loser of Game 3. The winner of Game 3 will play the winner of Game 5 that night. If needed, a winner-take-all game to move on to the Super Regionals would take place on Monday.
For now, the only thing fans and the Eagles need to worry about is beating Troy, no matter how good the ribs are.
"We're looking forward to a really good Troy ball club," said Gambino. "We're not looking past them at all."
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