BIRDBALL RECALL: On to Virginia Tech (What Bryant Game?)
By Quinn Kelly
This weekend’s series will be the most important of Boston College’s season. A weak, last-place Virginia Tech team is coming in and the Eagles need to take all three games to put themselves in a position to make the ACC Tourney. They won’t be coming in with any momentum, after an 18-6 drubbing on Wednesday at the hands of Bryant.
The Eagles had easily their worst pitching performance on the year. It was intended to be a staff day, as Coach Gambino didn’t want to put anybody that he thought they might need this weekend out of commission. Tommy Lane got the start and made it a whole third of an inning before getting yanked. It was a merciful pull from Coach, as Lane just didn’t have any of his stuff against a very potent Bryant offense. I don’t think anyone thought he’d be able to go the two after giving up 6 runs before collecting a second out.
Pitching didn’t really get any better from there, as a string of underclassmen from the pen would come out and proceed to get shelled by the relentless bats of Bryant. Stromberg, Nelson, Hughes, Witkowski, Metzdorf, Rapp, and finally, Giampetruzzi all got a shot for the Eags. Nobody outside of Giampetruzzi was able to throw two full innings, and Giampetruzzi likely only did because there was simply nobody left who hadn’t been essentially deactivated for the day.
We’re going to skip the lowlights/highlights section (as it may be too lopsided for those who are faint of heart) and get right to the silver linings.
First and foremost, this was a throwaway game for the Eagles. It was a non-conference game very close to an immeasurably important ACC series. The only thing to play for was bragging rights in New England. Bryant, according to the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association, is the only team ranked ahead of BC in New England. While it seems like this is something the team should care about, along with the fact that non-confs still count towards making the NCAA tourney, this is a goal-oriented team that knows how to prioritize. They came into the season trying to get back to the ACC Tournament and that is their sole focus right now.
The next point just furthers the reason they won’t be haunted by this loss: the few pitchers that went Wednesday, and have a possibility of pitching this weekend, all did well. While it doesn’t seem that way when looking at the box score, if we dive deeper into the stat lines of John Witkowski, Dan Metzdorf, and Brian Rapp, we see that the three of them actually had good days. Witkowski was the first Eagle pitcher to not see a run cross on his watch. He only gave up a single hit and a single walk with 2 Ks and no runs over 1.2 innings. Metzdorf followed him up with an inning of work in which Bryant was able to get three across, but none of them were earned. Metzdorf only gave up 2 hits and didn’t give up a walk while also striking out a pair. Rapp capped off a good stretch of Eagles pitching with an inning of work that only saw Bryant get one hit amidst 3 strikeouts. These aren’t just good innings of relief for the trio, they’re very impressive innings. It’s one thing to come in and keep a team quiet for an inning or so, but entirely another to shut them down when they are already so hot as a team. I would have to imagine the three of them earned at least an inning each over the course of the weekend.
Continuing the trend of positives for players you can expect to see this weekend, the BC bats were alive on Wednesday. The Eagles had 6 runs on 13 hits. That is going to get it done 90% of the time with Stevens/Dunn/King on the bump. While it may have come against lesser-caliber pitching, a good day at the dish is a good day at the dish. The only drawback here is the differential between hits and runs. The Eagles stranded 13 runners on the day…13!!! The majority of them were in scoring position, too. If they want to get wins this weekend, they’re going to have to have a better killer instinct with runners on and RISP. This is something I have said in nearly every article that they would develop as the season wore on, but we are approaching the twilight hour and it still seems as though they haven’t figured it out yet. Regardless, 6 runs should get it done each day this weekend. Let’s hope for continued success from what has really shaped up to be a stellar 1-2 punch in Stevens and Dunn and an easier lineup for King to right the ship against.
***TUNE INTO TO WVBC AM AT 2:30 TO CATCH GAME 1 VS VIRGINIA TECH***
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