BC: Can’t Complete Series Sweep of Virginia Tech

The Eagles have won four of the last six at home and earned their fifth series victory over the Hokies since both teams joined the ACC.

GAME INFORMATION
Score: Virginia Tech 5, Boston College 2
Records: Virginia Tech (10-12, 4-5 ACC) at Boston College (9-12, 4-5 ACC)
Series: BC wins the series, 2-1
Location: Brighton Baseball Field in Brighton, Mass.

BC HIGHLIGHTS

• Four BC players – sophomores Dante Baldelli, Jack Cunningham and Brian Dempsey, along with junior Jake Alu – recorded two hits apiece in the game.
• Junior Gian Martellini and freshman Chris Galland logged the Eagles’ RBIs.
• Cunningham has a hit in 17 of the Eagles’ 21 games this season. He paced the Eagles in the series with the Hokies with five hits, four RBIs and a .417 batting average.
• Palomaki has reached base safely in the last 16 games, drawing a walk to bring his career total to 130, the best in BC recook books. His 51 career stolen bases are second all-time and he has reached base safely 328 times in his career, fourth in BC record books.
• Dempsey has reached base safely in the 20 of the 21 games this year, including the last 12 games, and he has at least one hit in 29 of the last 41 games played, dating back to last season.
• Martellini threw out his ACC-leading 10^th base runner attempting to steal.

KEY PLAYS

• The Hokies scored their first four runs on two two-run homers in the first and fourth innings. The lead was enough as three of the four Tech pitchers head the Eagles scoreless for eight of the nine innings.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Hokies scored two in the first to take an early lead. Jack Owens drew a walk off junior starter RHP Brian Rapp to start the game. With one down, Luke Horanski homered to right to give Virginia Tech a 2-0 lead.
• With two outs in the fourth, JD Mundy singled up the middle and Sam Fragale followed with a home run to left.
• Virginia Tech went up by five in the seven with junior RHP Thomas Lane on the mound. With runners on the corners and one out, Jojo Odachauski laid down a bunt for the squeeze attempt, but Martellini quickly grabbed the ball and tagged out the lead runner coming home. Owens singled to right to bring in a run before Lane ended the inning with a grounder to second.
• The Eagles scored two in the eighth off RHP Nic Enright. Cunningham doubled with one down and Martellini followed with his own double to plate the first BC run of the game. A grounder moved Martellini to third and Galland beat out an infield single to drive in Martellini. Galland moved up to second on an errant throw but new pitcher RHP Graham Seitz forced a fly ball to end the scoring threat.
• Alu led off the ninth with a blooper to left, running the whole way to record a double. Seitz forced two fly balls and strikeout to end the game and strand Alu on the base path.

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE

• The Eagles are now 14-7 at home against Tech and 19-25 in the all-time series.  The Eagles won four of the last six at home.
• For the 10^th time this season, BC did not commit an error.
• For the third time in 2018, the Eagles lost when outhitting their opponent. They are 6-3 when recording more hits than the other team.
• For the 12^th time this season, the Eagles logged at least 10 hits in a game.

NEXT UP
The Eagles host Connecticut on Tuesday, March 27 at 3 p.m. at the Brighton Baseball Field.