BIRDBALL RECALL
By Quinn Kelly
It’s mid-March, temperatures are in the 40s and 50s, and cold winds are howling across the Heights. That of course means that it’s time for Boston College Baseball to open up its home schedule, and the Eags did just that yesterday against a familiar foe: UConn. Despite some formidable pitching from freshman Tommy Lane, the Huskies would spoil BC’s home opener in pretty definitive fashion, topping the Eagles, 9-4. Though, as it so often fails to in sports, the score does not really tell the story of the game. So, let’s take you through the ups and downs of the Eagles’ first game at Shea Field of 2016.
The match-up was set, the Eagles sent freshman Tommy Lane to the bump for his first start sporting the white uni of his Boston College career. His counterpart, Sam Nepiarsky, making the first start of his sophomore campaign. Despite the way the box score reads, it didn’t feel like Lane was too badly outdueled here by Nepiarsky, who managed to limit the Eagles offense to only 3 hits and no runs while fanning 6 of the 20 batters he faced.
Lane started out very strong with a 1-2-3 first that required only 9 pitches to draw a couple groundouts and a K from the top of the Huskies lineup. This would prove, however, to be the only easy inning of the day for Lane. In the second, Lane would get a quick first out, letting UConn’s best slugger Willy Yahn fly out to Donovan Casey in right. From there on it would be a tough inning for Lane, as a pair of walks (one by way of a hit batsmen who already had a 3-0 count) and a sacrifice led to a first and third dilemma with two outs. The freshman showed good resolve, though, striking out Keith Krueger and heading to the dugout unscathed. The 0-0 tie would be broken in the top of the 3rd when Aaron Hill scored from third off a choppy grounder to short. Despite Lane taking the hit here and being stuck with an earned run, it didn’t feel like he deserved it. Lane, with Hill on first, drew a ground ball up the middle. Hill was moving, as the hit-and-run was on, and Jake Palomaki was heading to second to cover. BC had a golden opportunity as Palomaki could’ve fielded the ball standing on second and fired to first to score a rare double play on a steal. Unfortunately, Palomaki dropped the ball when he tried to field it, allowing Hill to reach at second, and in his rushed recovery attempt, he threw the ball wide at first, drawing Mitch Bigras off the bag and allowing Michael Sundberg to reach. Hill would eventually come around to score and the Eagles headed into the bottom of the third fighting a deficit. The rest of Lane’s outing was pretty routine, and he finished the day with the following stat line:
Lane 4.1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2ER, 3 BB, 3K
Looking at this stat line, there’s a lot of positives to take away that offset the negatives. Giving up only one hit and 2 runs (the second scored after he was taken out, courtesy of a walk given up to the last batter he faced) to a team that has averaged a shade under 7 runs a game this season is very impressive for anyone, let alone a freshman making his first start in front of the home crowd. That’s certainly an outing that Coach Gambino can build off. There are really only two negatives I see in Lane’s outing. The first is, of course, the 3 walks. It honestly surprised me reading that he only gave up 3, as it seemed watching the game that he was surrendering bases on balls constantly. This, I believe, is just a result of Lane getting behind in a lot of counts throughout his outing (and of course the hit batsmen). Regardless, 3 walks isn’t a terrible total if you’re going 6 or 7 innings. This brings us to our second issue. While he is young, you’d like Lane to go at least the full fifth if not the sixth if he’s going to be a regular starter. Needing your bullpen to cover 4.2 innings is never good, especially with a game the next day and especially when it takes 5 pitchers to do so (though the latter is not really Lane’s fault). The innings are hinged upon the first problem of the walks. If Lane can start throwing more first pitch strikes and limiting his pitch count, there’s no reason he can’t give the Eagles 6 innings consistently. While this is obviously a tall task for a young kid, I’m sure given a long season, Lane can find his way there over time. At the end of the day, it was a serviceable outing from Lane and he gave the team a chance to win.
Other Lowlights
Coach Gambino followed up Lane with another freshman in Dan Metzdorf. Metzdorf had a pretty abysmal outing, coming in and hitting a batter, giving up a wild pitch, and walking his second batter before he was pulled without recording an out (and leaving the bases loaded for Bobby Skogsbergh). Silver Linings: Every freshman is going to have an outing or two like this. Better Metzdorf get it out of the way in a non-conference game against UConn than in an ACC matchup. Also, for the limited number of pitches we saw, the kid looked to be throwing pretty hard.
Aside from the bottom of the eighth, where they tallied their only three runs, the Eagles’ bats were silent. The Eagles had four batters go 0-fer on the day; not including Connor Bacon, who came up once in the ninth, once the game was out of reach. While they aren’t (and are not expected to be) the most potent offense, Tuesday’s performance isn’t going to get it done when it’s paired with a defense that has gotten a mysterious case of the yips over the past few games.
Silver Linings: The Eagles were aggressive with the runners they did get on base, having a very successful day taking advantage of UConn’s freshman catcher Zac Susi. There’s a lot of speed on the BC team and the way they moved around the base path made the game seem within reach, despite the lack of men on base, until the ninth. Going forward, BC just needs to capitalize more on its baserunners.
Other Highlights
Though the order may seem a bit unusual, I’m a firm believer in the old adage, “save the best for last.”
Stephen Sauter. Sauter, filling in for the Eagles starting catcher Nick Sciortino, was a wonderfully bright spot for the Eagles today. Sauter did it on both sides of the ball, grabbing one of BC’s two extra-base hits (a bases-clearing, 3 RBI double) as well as throwing a pair of runners out in key situations to keep Skogsbergh’s score sheet clean.
Speak of the devil, Bobby Skogsbergh was a huge plus for the Eagles. Skogsbergh had a fantastic outing, going 3.2 innings while giving up only 3 hits and a walk. He, along with Sauter of course, kept the Eagles in this one. Coach Gambino has to be truly grateful for the performance Skogsbergh gave him.
Final Thoughts
The Eagles lost a very winnable game here against a team that hadn’t won on the Heights in over 10 years. Falling now to 13-9, the Eagles, who started the season extremely strong and were garnering top 25 votes just a few weeks ago, need to recognize that these out of conference games are imperative in keeping them relevant in the NCAA rankings voters’ eyes. I expect them to stop their recent skid and get a key road win in Amherst today against UMass.
Note from the author: This is the first edition of what will be a recurring BC Baseball blog. Birdball Recall will be published after every Tuesday (or Wednesday) home game and after each weekend series. I hope that you continue to come to WZBCSports.com for your Eagles Baseball News.