Eagles Johnny Adams Named Unsung Hero

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BC BASEBALL’s Adams Named BC’s Unsung Hero
Eight earn academic achievement award honors

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – On Friday, the Boston College athletics department celebrated the 2016-17 year in sports with the annual Golden Eagle Awards. Senior Johnny Adams was honored as the male recipient of the Unsung Hero Award.

The award is presented to male and female student-athletes, as well as a member of the BC Athletics community, whose efforts toward, and passion for, the program go above and beyond.

Adams has been the Eagles’ starting shortstop the last four years and was voted a captain by his teammates as a senior. He is the first two-year recipient the No. 8 jersey, worn in honor of former baseball player Peter “Sonny” Nictakis. Each season a player who represents the best qualities of BC Baseball is voted by the baseball team to wear Nictakis’s old number. Adams was the first-ever junior selected a season ago.

The Walpole, Mass., native is fourth in BC record books for career sacrifice hits (24), eighth for career at bats (663), sixth for career games played (193) and fourth for career games started (191). He recorded a career-long, 14-game hit streak in 2016, which is tied for sixth in BC history, while his 168 assists in 2015 is third and his 163 is fourth on the single-season lists. He also turned 39 double plays in 2015, good for fourth all-time. Adams was named to the 2016 Oxford All-Regional Team and earned Most Outstanding Player.

Adams father, Jay, was a captain in 1987 under head coach Eddie Pellagrini and it is believed that they are the first father-son duo to both be captains at Boston College.

He has played in the Cape Cod Collegiate Baseball League the last two summers. In 2016, Adams was voted the winner of the Daniel J. Silva Sportsmanship Award by the league’s umpires, and in 2015, he earned the league’s Manny Robello 10th Player Award, given to a player who has shown dedication both on and off the field and all to the game.

Junior Donovan Casey was a top-three finalist for the Rising Leader Award. Football’s Chris Lindstrom picked up the honors.

The Athletics Director’s Award for Academic Achievement was also released at the Golden Eagles Awards. Student-athletes with a 3.0 GPA or higher earn a spot on the list. Seniors Adams, Chris Balogh, Luke Fernandes, junior Carmen Giampetruzzi and sophomores Dan Metzdorf, Jack Nelson, Jacob Stevens and Zach Stromberg all collected the honors. Giampetruzzi has earned the award every year of his BC career.

The Eagles are in Winston-Salem, N.C., for a three-game set with No. 17 Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons won the first game on Friday night.