Boston College Claims Series at Virginia Tech

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Boston College picked up their second road ACC series win with a 5-2 victory

BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Boston College baseball team won its second road ACC series of the season behind a 5-2 win over Virginia Tech at English Field on Monday night. The Eagles improved to 26-25 on the season and 10-17 in the ACC; two games up on the Hokies (25-24, 8-19) for the final spot in the ACC Championship with three games left in conference play.

Junior right fielder Joe Suozzi (Glen Cove, N.Y.) led BC with a 3-for-4 night with two RBI. He drove in the first run of the game with a two-out single up the middle to score senior catcher Gian Martellini (Johnston, R.I.), who had walked and advanced on a wild pitch. Suozzi added to a 2-0 Eagle lead with a leadoff home run on the first pitch of the fourth as BC scored a single run for the third inning in a row.

Boston College Claims Series as Joe Suozzi hits second homer of the year

Virginia Tech got on the board with a run in the bottom of the fourth, but Boston College answered immediately with two runs in the top of the sixth. Suozzi was ruled out at first on a groundball to short, but the play was reviewed and overturned to a leadoff single. Sophomore left fielder Chris Galland (Sudbury, Mass.) followed with a bunt single and after the duo was bunted into scoring position for the top of the order, senior third baseman Jake Alu (Hamilton, N.J.)hit a groundball to the right side that couldn’t be handled at first and scored two runs.

The BC bullpen provided 5.1 innings of relief. Senior RHP Thomas Lane (Georgetown, Mass.) was the first reliever of the night as he inherited two runners on with two outs in the fourth and left the bases loaded. Lane (2-0) got the win in three innings of relief with one run scored on one hit and two walks.

With the tying run at the plate and one away in the ninth, the Eagles turned to senior RHP John Witkowski (Melrose, Mass.), who fielded a high-chopper on the mound and got a force at second and then fanned a batter to record his third save of the season.

Freshman right-hander Joe Mancini (Fairfield, Conn.) went 3.2 innings of scoreless ball in his ninth start of the season. He scattered three hits and two walks with one strikeout. Mancini escaped runners at the corners and one out in the second as he got the second out on a bunt back to the mound and threw home to deny the tying run.

DETAILS
Score: Boston College 5, Virginia Tech 2
Records: Boston College (26-25, 10-17), Virginia Tech (25-24, 8-19)
Location: English Field at Union Park (Blacksburg, Va.)
Attendance: 682

BC HIGHLIGHTS

Suozzi delivered the first run of the game on a two-out single up the middle in the second.
With runners on the corners, Mancini fielded a bunt back to the mound and threw home for an out at the plate to deny the Hokies the tying run.
Morissette’s 18^th double of the season plated a run in the third.
Suozzi homered on the first pitch of the fourth inning out to left field.
Suozzi and Galland reached on infield-singles to set the table in the sixth and scored on a groundball to the right side from Alu.

GAME NOTES

Alu moved his career-best reached base streak to 23 games.
Lane made his 33^rd appearance of the season to break BC’s single-season record of 32 previously held by Nate Bayuk (2009).
Mancini pitched 3.2-scoreless to lift his scoreless-inning streak to 13 innings over his last three appearances.
Martellini posted his 16^th multi-hit game of the season and 46^th of his career.
Morissette hit his team-leading 18^th double.
Morissette recorded his 18^th multi-hit game of the season.
Morissette stole his seventh base of the season.
Stalman hit his fourth double of the season.
Suozzi slugged his second home run of the season and third of his career.
Suozzi collected his seventh multi-hit game of the season and 11^th of his career.
Suozzi stole his sixth base of the season.
BC’s 26 wins are the most since winning 35 games in 2016.
BC is 16-5 when scoring first.
BC, which had been swept in each of its last four series at VT, won its first series in Blacksburg since a 2006 sweep.

UP NEXT
The Eagles are off this week for finals and return to action against Maine on Tuesday, May 14 to begin a four-game homestand to close out the regular season.