Wake Forest Defeats Boston College 6-1, Sweeps Series

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Wake Forest Defeats Boston College 6-1, Sweeps Series

This was a day when Boston College dedicated their new baseball and softball complex, the Harrington Athletic Village. It was in honor of John Harrington, class of 57, and member of the BC board of trustee. On this special day, the baseball team attempted to take the final game of their three-game series vs Wake Forest

As was the case in the doubleheader loss on Friday, the bats were silent, but the starting pitching was good enough to keep the Eagles in the game. However, with no run support to work with, BC fell to the Demon Deacons 6-1 and got swept at home.

Wake Forest starting pitcher, Cole Peluse, was coming off a strong performance against No.12 Duke on Monday night. In that game, he went seven innings giving up seven hits and three runs. On Saturday afternoon, he backed up that outing with six solid innings vs Boston College. He gave up only three hits and one earned run. He remained undefeated at 6-0 and lowered his ERA to under three.

Boston College starter Brian Rapp (3-4), was also coming back from a very good start last Sunday vs Pittsburgh. It was a game where he would take a no-hitter into the seventh. On Saturday vs Wake Forest, he had another strong game giving up only four hits, two runs of which one was earned. However, to have a chance in this one, he needed to throw shutout baseball.

Birds go in order in the third.

Wake leads through three in Brighton#Birdball pic.twitter.com/rIhDZzCWv5

— Boston College Baseball (@BCBirdBall) April 14, 2018

Wake struck first, in the second inning. After Michael Ludowig reached on a fielders choice. He would steal second base (his sixth of the season) and would come around to score on an RBI double by Ma. native Chris Lanzilli. It was one of three hits on the day for him to go along with two runs batted in. It was 1-0 Demon Deacons after two.

They would double their lead in the fifth. With one down, Logan Harvey single to right field. The number nine hitter in Wake’s lineup, D. J. Poteet, reached on an error by Rapp. Rapp would add to his problems by slipping on the mound while making a pitch to leadoff hitter Patrick Frick. The balk would advance the runners up a base. Frick then executed a safety squeeze to the right side to score Ludowig and give Wake Forest a 2-0 lead after five.

Baldelli walks but a fly ball ends the sixth. Birds get one back#Birdball pic.twitter.com/p7V0EC0vsE

— Boston College Baseball (@BCBirdBall) April 14, 2018

Boston College tallied their only run of the game in the sixth. Chris Galland walked to lead things off. He then stole second, his twenty-fifth of the season without being caught. He scored on a base hit and fielding error off the bat of Jack Cunningham. 2-1 Wake Forest after six innings.

The Demon Decanos broke the game open versus the Eagles bullpen. In the seventh, a sac fly by Frick plated Lanzilli to give Wake Forest their two-run lead back at 3-1 after seven.

In the eighth, they scored three times on a combination of three hits, and three walks against Tommy Lane and Sean Hughes. The outburst gave Wake Forest the final margin of victory 6-1 and a road sweep of the series.

After the game, Boston College head coach Mike Gambino was trying to put his finger on his team struggles. On his starting pitcher Brian Rapp, the coach thought he was great, especially coming back on short rest. But he can not figure out why his ballclub has been as inconsistent as they have been.

He thinks they are getting closer to putting things together, but fears that time may be running out on his team. With the sweep Wake Forest improves to 17-20 overall, 10-8 in league play. Boston College drops to 11-22, and 5-13 in conference play.

There is little time for the Eagles to figure things out and on Tuesday they face URI at home with first pitch at 5:30 pm.