Baseball season ends with ugly loss to Liberty
It was fun while it lasted.
Boston College was picked to finish last in the ACC this season, yet earned (backed into) a top four seed in the ACC tournament and finished with 36 wins, one shy of the 2023 team’s 37.
Unfortunately, an inexcusable loss to NJIT during the first game of a double header days after losing two of three to Clemson started to set the wheels in motion for a collapse.
The Eagles got mugged by Georgia Tech for three games, limped into the ACC tournament, went one-and-done, then had a chance to right the ship in the Athens Regional.
Instead, BC lost game one despite being three outs away from a victory. Game two was better, with the old Eagles showing up for eight runs on Saturday. But, with the season on the line against Liberty once again Sunday, BC melted down.
Errors, lack of discipline, a cold lineup and just an outright ugly performance led to an 8-3 beat down by the Flames.
What once looked ike a magical season turned into a footnote in BC athletics history in a matter of weeks. The Eagles finished at 37-23.
“I asses what went wrong in the last couple weeks. I think you can feel the emotions, right? The 2-9 finish doesn’t take away from what we did. At the same time, how well we played through March and April, specifically, doesn’t make us feel better about the way we finish,” said manager Todd Interdonato. “I try to look at those two things equally. You can try to compartmentalize them. I feel like every single year I’ve done this I have the same thought at the end of the year, which is ‘okay we need to get better.’ Whether it’s a 21, 37 or 42-win season, conference championships, whatever it is. That’s the way my brain works. As soon as the year ends, we have to get better for us. In my entire career, that always starts with developing the players in your program.
“My main thought right now is how do we get our current players better? How do we develop those guys? How do we get more out of those guys?”
It all started off well again for BC again on Sunday, which makes the loss more frustrating.
Ty Manolfi had a solo shot in the top of the first to make it 1-0. In the second, Luke Gallo led off with a double and scored on an RBI single by Gunnar Johnson. Meanwhile, Brady MIller (5 IP, 6 H, 7 R (5 ER), 1 BB, 9 K) was dealing.
The wheels fell off in a hurry in the third though, as Liberty scored five runs on multiple errors – including a wide pick off attempt from Miller – and the Eagles never recovered.
Liberty made it 6-2 in the fourth with a two-run homer. In the top of the fifth, things got ugly with Julio Solier at first and no outs. As the Liberty short stop went to turn a double play the bag, Solier went spikes high and made a subtle move to try and grab his ankle. After the DP was complete, he stood up and got in the face of the short stop before being pulled away by the second base umpire. After a long discussion, Solier remained in the game, but both teams were given warnings.
It only fueled Liberty, as the Flames made it 7-2 in the bottom of the inning and added another in the seventh. An RBI single to right for Mainolfi in the ninth was the last bit of offense for BC on the year.
