BC BASEBALL: Eagles Takes Two From Quinnipiac

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With rain on the baseball horizon, the Boston College Eagles and the Quinnipiac Bobcats decided to switch up the schedule for the weekend series at Shea Field. Instead of playing two on Mother’s Day the two teams did it on Saturday.

Backed by solid pitching and offense of both the long and small ball variety, the Eagles were able to cone away with a doubleheader sweep by scores of 5-1 in game one and 3-0 in the nightcap.

Game one was about the home run stroke for BC, as Head Coach Mike Gambino said afterward ” we don’t hit a lot of home runs but it was still nice to see”.

The Bobcats did jump out first and hold a brief lead. In the top of the first leadoff hitter, Mike Pallandino singled off Boston College starter Jacob Stevens. He moved to second on a stolen base and scored when third place batter Joesph Burns drove him in with a base hit to center. 1-0 Quinnipiac.

The Eagles got the run back in the bottom of the frame when Jake Palomaki got things started with a walk. Donovan Casey also reached base and the Eagles were in business. A Michael Strem single to left could have loaded the bases for BC, however, Palomaki was thrown out trying to get to third. The inning looked wasted until Jack Alu, hitting in the five hole, came through with a base hit to left scoring Casey. Game tied at 1-1.

Then, Boston College showed off some muscle by going deep against Bobcats pitching. Starter Chris Enns went the first two giving up the Eagles first run. His replacement Brandon Shileikis came on in the third and he would give up a Mitch Bigras towering homerun to right field in the fourth, his second of the season. In the fifth, another BC bomb, this one off the bat of Gian Martellini to left field his fifth of the campaign made the score 3-1 Boston College.

While the bats were going yard Boston College was getting great pitching from Stevens who went the first three and by Dan Metzdorf who went the next five giving up only one hit while striking out four.

BC plated another run in the seventh again off the bat of Martellini this time a single that drove home Casey. That run was charged to Greg Egan. In the eight Johnny Adams connected for his first of the year over the wall in left off of Andrew Workman to make the final score 5-1 home team. Metzdorf gets the win his fourth of the season Shilekis took the loss, his second.

Game two was all about Eagle starter Brian Rapp. He went the first five allowing only one hit and striking out eight in a dominating performance. Boston College broke the scoreless tied in the fifth. The first two hitters reached on a walk to Anthony Maselli who then stole second, moved to third on a strike out wild pitch during Aaron Soucy’s at bat. With runners at the corners, leadoff batter Jake Palomaki dropped a safety squeeze down the first base side that was not handled cleanly by Bobcat first baseman Ben Gibson. It allowed Maselli to score to make it 1-0 Eagles.

Boston College added two more runs in the seventh and eight innings to add to the lead. A Sac Fly by Strem scored Casey and in the eighth, a fielder’s choice by Bigras scored Alu to make the score 3-0. Both runs were charged to relief pitcher Mike Davis who worked the last two frames.

After Rapp, the bullpen was solid as Carnen Gampetuzzi and John Witkowski went the final four innings give up only two hits combined as the pitching staff threw a shutout in game two with Witkowski picking up his first save of the year.

After the game Coach Gambino was pleased with the effort and praised both Rapp and Metzdorf for improving as the season has gone along. They are both learning how to be starting pitchers and the results are starting to show.

BC improved to 21-26 while Quinnipiac drops to 17-30. Weather permitting, game three takes places on Sunday with first pitch at high noon.