Boston College Baseball Wins Its Home Opener Against the Harvard Crimson
By Kyle Egan
Apr 1, 2013; Minneapolis, MN, USA; A view of a baseball on the field during batting practice before a game between the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
With the brisk winds coming in from the Res, Boston College Baseball finally started off its home schedule against the Harvard Crimson by beating the Ivy Leaguers for their fifth victory of the year 8-6 at Shea Field.
Boston College pitcher Matt Alvarez started the first three innings, letting in two runs, while picking up his first win of the season. Harvard’s starter Peter Kaplan dropped to 0-4 on the year giving up seven runs in two and a third.
Boston College’s offense was on early in the bottom of the first filling up the bases with no outs only for Kaplan to put on his Houdini cape and escape the jam with two swinging strikeouts and a simple pop out.
But Harvard was able to come back in the top of the third, when Alvarez was starting to lose some of his control of his pitches on the outside corner. He had two wild pitches and after a bit of hard, boring baseball the Crimson were able to push two across the plate.
Now, as has been the case throughout the Eagles’ rough and tumble year, this could have been the time where the Eagles laid down and died but Coach Gambino’s squad came alive in the bottom half.
Left fielder Jimmy Dowdell, who came in for Gabriel Hernandez, tripled down the left field line driving in two runs. Freshman shortstop Joe Cronin followed him with a double to deep center. The Eagles got two more runs in the inning pushing the lead to five runs, at 7-2.
Harvard started to come back throughout the game, really making it scary for the Superfans who braved the weather at Shea Field in the ninth after the Crimson’s Kregel hit a bomb over the fences in left cutting the Eagles lead to 8-6. Harvard then got two on, with two outs but Eagles pitcher Nick Poore was able to slam the door, forcing Wineski to fly out to Tom Bourdon in center field to end the affair.
It was a good victory for Boston College over their safety school Harvard. Perhaps maybe Harvard should work on their play on the field more than making YouTube videos(yes, they made that Call Me Maybe video that got over 17 million hits) as their record falls to 4 and 17. The Eagles move up to 5 and 22, with a game coming up on Friday at home against Clemson. See you there!!!