Dempsey and Birdball Veterans Ready to Step Up

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Brian Dempsey’s days as an up-and-coming infielder for the Boston College Eagles have come to an end. When he returns to campus for the beginning of the fall semester, he will encounter the start of his junior season. The time to make the leap to upperclassman and leader has arrived.

Dempsey has been a starter for head coach Mike Gambino since he first donned the maroon and gold as a freshman in 2017. As a freshman, the Eagles were coming off an appearance in the 2016 NCAA Super Regionals. Since then, Dempsey and BC have been fighting to get back to the NCAA Regionals.

For a program that was one win away from Omaha just two years ago, the prospect of making a return to the postseason lies with its strong core seniors and juniors.

“I think next season is going to come down to the junior and senior classes,” stated Dempsey. “We’re going to have another year under our belt. Guys like [Dante] Baldelli and [Jack] Cunningham started pretty much every game as sophomores. [Matt] Gill is going to be great. [Joey] Walsh is going to be great. He has had a great summer on the Cape and I think those two guys are going to step into bigger roles on our pitching staff.”

The Eagles are expected to return one-weekend starter, the bulk of its bullpen and seven starters in its lineup for 2019.

Dempsey hit a team-high .319 as a sophomore as he transitioned from the Eagles’ starting third baseman in 2017 to starting second baseman in 2018. He finished the season on a tear; hitting .385 (15-for-39) over the last 13 games.

“My biggest individual goal for this season is to get stronger and faster,” Dempsey continued. “I know coach Gambino wants us to be an up-tempo team, steal a lot of bases and put the other team on its heels. As a whole, I think our junior class has a lot of guys that are playing and have another year of experience coming back and joining the seniors that return, who can really help this team.”

On the base paths, Dempsey stole seven bases for a BC team that totaled 92, which ranked second in the ACC and 21^st in the NCAA. Rising sophomore Chris Galland led the league with 28 steals, ranking 12^th in the nation.

Over the summer months, Dempsey, a Potomac, Md. native, is honing his craft with the D.C. Grays of the Cal Ripken League; a wood-bat league based in the Beltway. Last summer, he spent 10 games for the Baltimore Redbirds of the Cal Ripken League before an injury ended his summer season.

“Summer ball is different,” Dempsey said. “It’s pretty cool to be able to play with kids from different teams and schools and get to know them and form relationships with them. The competition can be up-and-down depending on the league or the team and what pitcher you face.

“It’s games pretty much every day depending on the week. In one stretch, we had 15 games in 11 days, but right now we’re at our All-Star break so we’ve got three days off right now and then six games in five days before the playoffs start up.”

Dempsey and the Grays got off to a slow start this summer in mid-June, but after a few days off, the bats came to life.

A 3-for-20 start to the summer began to be a distant memory after a brief three-game hit and RBI streak in late June. Dempsey posted a three-hit, four-RBI game to close out the month and hasn’t slowed down. Since then he is hitting .383 (18-for-47) to lift his summer average to .293 with 15 runs driven in.

“[Entering the summer], I had played a lot of baseball and adjusting to playing with a new group of guys. I was a little tired, but then we had a two-day break and after that, I started hitting the ball pretty well. I’ve been hitting fourth and fifth in the order. It’s fun to hit with guys on base.”

Dempsey hit in seven of nine spots in the BC lineup last season with a high of 17 starts hitting seventh. On paper, it would appear the biggest gap to fill for the Eagles will be at the top of the order, which was occupied by senior shortstop Jake Palomaki, a .315 hitter this spring. Leadoff is one of the two spots Dempsey did not bat in last season, but while he possesses the tools, there may be an opportunity for him to drive runners in from the middle of the Boston College order.

Situationally, Dempsey was one of the best hitters on the team with a .408 batting average with runners on base and .392 average with runners in scoring position. Additionally, 12 of his 20 RBI came with two outs as he tied for third on the team and was just one off of the team lead of 13 established by Baldelli and Palomaki.

Dempsey could also factor into BC’s 2019 with another position change. He competed with Palomaki for the starting shortstop job last season and after playing alongside a senior shortstop for the second year in a row, as Palomaki was preceded by Johnny Adams in 2017, he will once again compete for the position come fall ball. Ultimately, it will come down to what position he can play to best benefit the team.

“I’ve been playing shortstop and second base [this summer], while recently playing more second,” explained Dempsey. “There was some competition for the shortstop job last year and I think there will be again this year. I can play all three infield positions; wherever the team needs me.”