The old song says two out of three ain’t bad, but with the sort of season Boston College Eagles baseball has had, they’ll take one and run. They got it on Sunday afternoon in their series finale against the Virginia Tech Hokies.

On Friday afternoon in the opener, the Eagles had fine pitching, but the hitting was stymied and they fell, 1-0, in a 12-inning affair. In fact, with only three hits for the game, BC averaged just one every four innings. Hunter Gordon went nine innings deep into the game and shut the Hokies out over that stretch, but he was not rewarded for his peak performance with a win.

On Saturday, in the second annual ALS Awareness Game, Boston College actually put some runs on the board, but dug too big of a hole for themselves in a 7-5 loss. By all accounts, the Eagles had a more than respectable bottom of the ninth inning in which they plated five runs, but the problem was that they were down by seven. Between the extra-inning game on Friday and the first eight innings on Saturday, Virginia Tech shut the Eagles out for the first 20 innings of the series. Eric Stevens took the loss for BC, falling to a highly disappointing 0-11 mark despite only allowing three earned runs — four more were unearned.

In the series finale on Sunday, before which the seniors were honored for their presence, the comeback was completed and the Eagles won, 5-3. It is the team’s eleventh victory of the year, and the third against an ACC opponent. Down 2-1 entering the bottom of the eighth, BC scored four times, including a Matt Pare home run and a Gabriel Hernandez two-run double.

BC baseball’s season is less than two weeks from ending, with their home finale coming against Maine after the finals break on May 14. Thereafter, the Eagles close a dismal 2013 campaign at Maryland for a three-game set from May 16 to the 18th.

On a sunny, slightly brisk day at Chestnut Hill’s Shea Field, spirits were high. The first batch of students that attended received free Boston College hats(can’t say that I didn’t take up upon that offer myself). It’s too bad that I picked up a Large hat for my dome because when I realized that wearing it any further would give me a headache that is only saved for a Nickleback/Creed double bill, the XL hats were gone. So while braving a headache from the hat and other factors, I sat down to watch the 2:30 series opener between the Boston College Eagles and Virginia Tech Hokies.

Starting on the mound for the Eagles was senior righty Hunter Gordon, coming in hot with a 1-4 record on the season, with hitters batting .246 against him. Obviously W-L record really don’t matter for this team. Starter Eric Stevens’ record is 0-10 with a 6.42 ERA. On the other hand, John Gorman has an even more horrid ERA at 6.48, but has 3 wins. Take what you will from that but it is definitely seen that Gordon’s efforts on the hill haven’t been backed up by the Birdball offense.

I would make a joke comparing the probability of the Eagles putting up five runs to predictability of going out with someone with match with on Tinder, but after this game I’m pretty much convinced that Tinder sprouts more love than Coach Gambino’s crew puts men across the plate.

And oh boy, did the Eagles shortchange their pitcher!

Hunter Gordon came in against the No. 25 ranked Virginia Tech Hokies and throughly dominated. Virginia Tech came in with a stellar .286 BA with 310 runs(6.59 per game). For the purposes of comparison, Boston College is barely staying above the Mendoza line at .205, only driving in 150 runs(3.26 per game). Taking down a lineup like the Hokies with eight strikeouts while owning the outside corner should be rewarded by your teammates, the Eagles refused to help him or any of the other hurlers in 12 innings.

Now, if you are a Virginia Tech Hokie fan reading this blog for some reason(Obviously it’s for my humor and obscure references), don’t think that I am discounting SP Joe Mantiply’s outing. The senior has had a stellar career for the Hokies and he continued his solid season by throwing seven scoreless, but when a baseball team is unable to get three hits in 12 innings, there is a right for the fan to mock, without even considering their competition.

I will give a more full recap by the end of this weekend, as the series continues, but finals call me. I know you’re asking, “Kyle, how could someone as brilliant as you need to be studying on a Friday night?” I give you two words: Research Methods.

Anyways, have a great night you crazy, wild Boston College Eagles fans. Hopefully we’ll see you tomorrow(today) at 1:30 PM at Shea Field. But for now, have a good night.

Boston College Eagles baseball is in the middle of its best stretch of the season.

Granted, that’s not saying much, but it is nevertheless the case. BC has won three in a row and four out of its last five games, including its most recent Atlantic Coast Conference series against Miami, and they are looking for more. They will get the chance for that when the Virginia Tech Hokies come up from Blacksburg for a weekend visit to sunny Chestnut Hill.

It will be the Eagles’ penultimate ACC series of the 2013 season, which might not necessarily be a bad thing considering that they’re 10-35 on the year, but when it comes to playing better baseball, the adage better late than never comes to mind. On another note, it’s also the final one BC will host this season, with the seniors being honored in the Sunday finale. The schedule does, however, indicate that there is one final home game this season on May 14 against the Maine Black Bears.

The Hokies are 28-18 (11-13) and looking to clinch their spot in the 2013 ACC Tournament, from which the Eagles have been long since eliminated. We could dump stats on you all morning, but at this point in the season, none of it matters. Either Boston College is going to reach down for some extra pride and gut out a few wins or they won’t.

Promotions and special events: On Friday, the first 47 students to go to the game and show Boston College identification will get a free BC hat.

Saturday is the Second Annual ALS Awareness Game, being done in support of Pete Frates and Dick Kelley, two major players in Boston College sports who are both suffering from the disease. Last year’s inaugural ALS Awareness Game got a record crowd at Shea Field; all are invited to attend.

On Sunday, BC baseball’s seniors will be honored.

Friday afternoon’s game is at 2:30pm, Saturday’s game begins at 1:30pm (preceded by a pregame ceremony), and Sunday’s game begins at 1pm (also preceded by a pregame ceremony).

Last season, the new-look Eagles went all year without an ACC road win, or a road win at all. They came especially close in Blacksburg, Virginia, but BC snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. This time, it only took them one conference road game to get on the board and get some payback for that last-minute meltdown.

On Wednesday evening in Blacksburg, the Boston College Eagles defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies, 86-75. The win raises the Eagles’ record to 9-6 (1-1) and makes it their first conference victory of the season. BC has now won six of their last seven games.

The first half started very slowly for both teams, but more for the visiting Eagles. It took them a fair amount of time to reach double-digits in points, and much longer to reach double digits in free throws made. Just as it was against NC State on Saturday, Boston College had significant difficulties making their foul shots, shooting only 8-for-17 from the stripe before halftime but climbing over 50% for the whole game.

Aside from some cool shooting to start, and even worse free throw shooting, the Eagles found a way to take a 32-26 lead into the half. Much of this had to do with turnovers, which favored Boston College in the only way that mattered: in the first, the Eagles led the Hokies 15-0 in points off of turnovers.  This only got more lopsided for the Hokies in the second half. For what it’s worth, BC also led on points in the paint and turned the ball over just four times early. Their turnover total for the game was only five, which is a very encouraging sign for Steve Donahue and company.

In the second, Boston College would have its lead stretch to double-digits thanks to some improved shooting and more costly turnovers for the Hokies that led to Eagle baskets. Virginia Tech went on several second-half runs to cut the margin to single digits and get as close as three, but they never broke through. Boston College made enough plays, and did enough with the opportunities the Hokies gave them, to keep Virginia Tech at arm’s length.

It does not particularly matter that Virginia Tech is a bottom-half team that’s starting to take on water faster than the Titanic: ACC wins are ACC wins. Considering how BC only got four the entire 2011-12 season, and none away from Conte Forum, this is a tangible sign of progress. It wasn’t a bad performance by the Eagles, either, and it should have been a blowout if not for the poor free throw shooting.

The Eagles return to the court on Saturday afternoon when they visit the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Following a spirited but disappointing opening to the ACC campaign, Boston College is looking to get back to winning in their conference road opener against the Virginia Tech Hokies. Here, it’s not just one team that needs to get back on track after a loss: it’s both, and the home team arguably needs it much, much more.

Virginia Tech, after a surprising 7-0 start to the season, has lost five of its last seven games. The Hokies are currently on a three-game losing streak, but they haven’t just lost those games: they’ve gotten absolutely obliterated. Saturday’s game at Maryland was a smallest margin of defeat of the three – 23 points. Before that, they lost to BYU by 26 and Colorado State by 36. That’s an embarrassing average margin of defeat of 28.3 points per game, for those who failed math.

Looking for some common threads in those games, aside from “VT gave up a lot of points,” they had double-digit turnovers in all of them and didn’t shoot above 38.1%. The Hokies free throw shooting has been unimpressive during those three games (BC can relate after their performance against NC State) but defense is obviously the name of the game when you’re giving up an average of over 90 points per game. Hokie opponents shot 48.5% in their last three games, a fair amount of which came from beyond the arc. Indeed, box scores don’t tell the whole story: the natives think Virginia Tech has played awful defense lately as well.

BC has won five of their last six: wins against St. Francis and New Hampshire were shaky, the Providence win was solid, and big wins over Holy Cross and Dartmouth took care of business. Further, the Eagles played reasonably well in a loss to NC State on Saturday, but were not without some deficiencies. A large part of the story of this developing team is the freshmen: Olivier Hanlan and Joe Rahon have been better already than most of last year’s freshmen were all season in 2011-12. They have not carried the team, but they have played a significant role.

Meanwhile, Erick Green has been a lot of the Hokies’ everything so far this season. There are other familiar faces on the team to BC fans, but he’s been their driving force by far. He averages 24.6 points per game; Jarell Eddie, the #2 scorer, is ten and a half points behind. Thanks in part to Green’s efforts, the Hokies average more points per game than the Eagles, but they give up more (VT is ranked 315th in D-I in that department; BC 194).

No doubt, this is a game that the Hokies are thinking they’ve got to win with their home crowd against a so-so team. On the other side, for Boston College, this is an ideal scenario to get your first ACC road win. In fact, it’s about as ideal as it will get in ACC road play this year. One was taken away at Cassell in the closing seconds of last year’s meeting, so if the players recall that clearly, they have an opportunity to recover from the NC State loss, get some revenge, and kick Virginia Tech while they’re down. A loss here for the Eagles would be somewhat of a bad omen, given how badly the Hokies have played recently.

On Saturday afternoon, the Virginia Tech Hokies defeated the Boston College Eagles, 30-23 in overtime. With the Senior Day loss, Boston College is now 2-9 with one game remaining in the abortive 2012 season, and has lost five straight to the Hokies. This abomination comes to an end next Saturday at NC State.

Since I did not see the game live, due to a passing in the family, I am not qualified to offer a recap. I have, however, seen bits and pieces and have gathered intelligence from those who did see it. This is a bullet-points article all the way; there will be no system or predetermined flow to it.

The random notes:

• Frank Spaziani is a terrible head football coach. He cowardly “coaches not to lose;” these depths of gutlessness are unforgivable in his current position. In a 23-23 game, he had the ball AND over a minute to go in regulation AND two timeouts, and played for overtime, where BC lost. The man can’t even take chances when we’re 2-8. Ordinarily, it’s sad when someone loses their job. I will be crying tears of joy when Spaziani is forcibly ejected from his in approximately one week’s time.

• Our seniors deserved better than to be saddled with Spaz for four years. Unfortunately, aside from those staying for a fifth year, they’ll never know what it can be like around here with a winning attitude. I’ve seen it; it’s fun. In 2009, just when Soaring to Glory was starting, I said on a social medium that I thought BC would never reach the ACC title game under Spaz. I might not have been out on a shaky limb, but I saw where this was going back then, and it was true.

• Seeing Alex Amidon with only two catches for 18 yards is shocking. I’m hoping Chase Rettig was not as bad as his stat line.

• Rolandan Finch had a nice day it would appear, with 138 yards.

• It’s only fitting that BC runs out the clock and gets smacked in overtime on a day when Montel Harris rushed for 7 touchdowns — against Army, a team BC couldn’t beat.

• BC finally got back over 20 points, but another game of less than 300 yards of offense. This group has gotten pretty stale since the Florida State game, which should probably answer any questions about Doug Martin weathering the upcoming coaching change. I’m not sure a single one of the assistants will.

• 3-for-16 on third down is another point in favor of this offense not being as good as it looked at the start of the season.

Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

Alumni Stadium hosts its final game of the 2012 season tomorrow. Someone will come out of there a winner, but will it be the much-maligned home team as their seniors get a send-off?

How Virginia Tech Will Win
The Hokies take this game if their defense plays respectably well and Logan Thomas doesn’t add to his 14 interceptions. Their running game isn’t extraordinary by any means, but if they can get that going, they can follow the blueprint that most other teams have against BC: pound the football, extend drives, and tire out the BC defense to the point where their vulnerability is heightened. That would then set up the pass, which the Eagles are basically powerless to stop these days. The sad truth is that BC’s opponents haven’t even needed to play their best to beat the Eagles this year, so if Virginia Tech plays a largely mistake-free game, they will probably win.

How Boston College Will Win
The Eagles win if they, well, do a lot of things better than they have this season. It starts with Chase Rettig, who has to lead the offense out of its recent doldrums, because 17 points or thereabouts probably isn’t winning this game. It is unreasonable to expect the defense to take a big step forward in the 11th game of the season, but what a BC fan can hope for is that the Eagles can take advantage of Virginia Tech’s weakness with turnovers and get themselves off the field. Gaining turnovers is actually an area in which the Eagles have been alright. If BC gets opportunistic here, it would give them a real chance.

Bottom Line
It has not been a great year for Frank Beamer’s team, or Frank Beamer, but in three previous meetings, he has badly outcoached the Frank on the other sideline. Granted, Beamer had more talent then, but he now has a team that’s still playing for something. This is literally the worst Virginia Tech team in 20 years — but it’s BC’s worst in 20 years, too. This is not a major advantage for the Hokies, but with BC struggling to beat anybody, I can’t say I favor them.

Virginia Tech at Boston College: Game Analysis
• Score estimate: Virginia Tech 24, Boston College 17
• Possible but slightly more unlikely that VT covers spread (-10)
• Low probability of a high-scoring game

Additional Information
• Virginia Tech has won last four meetings against Boston College: 30-12, 48-14, 19-0, and 30-14
• BC’s last win over VT at Alumni Stadium was October 18, 2008 (28-23)
• A BC defeat would give the Eagles their first 9-loss season since 1989
• Two more BC defeats would give the Eagles their first 10-loss season since 1978

Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

It seems like we only just began covering 2012 Boston College football games a short time ago, but we have already reached the last home game of the year, and the penultimate contest of the season. Time flies when nobody, much less the guys on the field, is having fun. Nevertheless, there is a home game against the Hokies, and this time, BC might actually win. Here are some of the biggest questions to ponder this week.

5. What’s wrong with the Hokies this year?

Virginia Tech has lost some talent between last season and this one on offense, but where they’ve really been hit is on defense. That particular unit for the Hokies is still statistically okay, but not where it was last season and has had some real nightmarish breakdowns. They gave up 48 points to North Carolina and recently lost to Miami by 18.

It’s unfair to pin it all on the defense, though. VT is turning the ball over a lot this season — 22 times through 10 games, to be exact — and they’re giving the other team plenty of opportunities in the “points off of turnovers” category.

One cliched way of putting it is that they’re “finding ways to lose,” which is something with which we can sympathize.

Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

Boston College’s defense is a unit that is probably holding out for the season to be over. With the shocking body of work they’ve put together so far, nobody can blame them if they do. In their final home game of the 2012 season, they face off against a Virginia Tech Hokies offense that has also had its share of struggles.

Virginia Tech lost some offensive talent in the offseason when RB David Wilson and WR Danny Coale entered the draft while others graduated. Quarterback Logan Thomas is still there, but he leads a unit with less firepower. In 2012, the Hokies are 71st in scoring with 26.6 points per game and 65th in total yardage (399.8). Compare this to last season where Virginia Tech was 35th in yardage (413) and 57th in scoring (27.93). The difference is negligible, but there’s no question that the Hokies have done a little less this season. With their defense not up to its normal levels this year, they can’t afford to get away with it. Consider also that they scored 79 points against Austin Peay and Bowling Green, so that skewed the statistics a bit.

Logan Thomas has been part of the problem this year. He has thrown 14 touchdowns, but also 14 interceptions, “helping” his team to 93rd in turnover margin; Virginia Tech’s 22 turnovers lost is near the bottom of the country. Thomas’s completion percentage this year is not very high, either, at just 53.6%.

The quarterback also happens to be the team’s leading rusher, which should tell you something about how the Hokies have coped with the loss of David Wilson. Wilson had 1709 yards on the ground last season, while Thomas leads VT this year with 435. It should not surprise anyone, then, that they are on pace for hundreds upon hundreds fewer rushing yards than 2011, with fewer touchdowns as well.

As for the Boston College defense they will face, their struggles are well known to those who have seen any games against teams not from Maine or Maryland. With only two games remaining in this forgettable season, the body of work is disturbing:

• 107th in FBS (11th ACC) in total defense: 470 ypg allowed
• 77th in FBS (9th ACC) in scoring defense: 29.9 ppg allowed
• 119th in FBS in tackles for a loss: 3.3 per game
• Poor tackling
• Ineffective scheme
• Worst defensive line play in over a decade

These problems did not magically fix themselves over the first ten games, so it’s unlikely that they will in the last two. The Hokies that they will face this week may not have a powerful offense, but it’s better than, say, Notre Dame. To date, the only offenses BC has been able to stop are Maine, an FCS team, and Maryland, a miserable offense which was on its fourth-string quarterback. When your team is allowing about 500 yards per game against FBS competition, it’s obvious that they’re having trouble, and Boston College will have a lot to fix in 2013, ostensibly under a completely new coaching staff.

Virginia Tech may have a slight advantage in this matchup by virtue of BC’s defensive performance across the board. What may turn the scales a bit is the Hokies’ propensity to turn the ball over; a few interceptions could give the Eagles defense a fighting chance and mask some deficiencies.

Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

Articles such as these have become thoroughly pointless, but we won’t be seeing them again until September, so what say we humor ourselves for the next two weeks. Both the Virginia Tech defense and Boston College offense have underachieved in 2012, but as we all know, the Hokie defense has been a staple of their success in recent years. The fact that it is not holding up so well know would (partially) explain their shocking 4-6 season.

Don’t get me wrong: by the numbers, the Virginia Tech defense is still alright. Just compare it to last season where it was in the top ten nationally in both scoring allowed and yards allowed. That is nowhere near the case this year for the Hokies, as Bud Foster’s bunch is 38th in total defense (362.2 yards per game) and just 50th in scoring defense (25 points per game). Everything you needed to know about what kind of year they’re having in Blacksburg was on display last Thursday night, when Florida State went 68 yards in 1:39 for the game-winning touchdown and two-point conversion. When push came to shove, the Hokies broke, and that has been the case often enough in 2012.

One of the few areas in which Virginia Tech is still legitimately good is third-down defense, where they are ranked 20th at allowing only 31.79% conversions. That could be a problem for the Eagles offense, which is tied for 112th nationally at just 31.82%. Rarely do numbers sync up so well.

The Eagles have been going through somewhat of a power outage in their last five games. Yes, Chase Rettig has had some good moments and yes, Alex Amidon has already broken the single-season receiving record, but for the most part, it just isn’t happening for this group anymore. As it turns out, BC’s 32 points on opening day was the most they’ve accumulated in a single game against an FBS team all year. In their last five games, BC has averaged just 12.8 points per game and a few feet under 300 yards.

Boston College is holding at 95th in total offense (358 ypg) but has sunk back into the dreaded triple-digits in scoring offense, now sitting at 104th (20.5 ppg). What is particularly sad is that when all is said and done this season, the overall offensive statistics will not be that much better than last year. Even if BC does well in their last two games, it’s not going to be enough to substantially move the needle. The only saving grace BC can find is in the performance of their quarterback and top wide receiver, who have brought a little fun to this offense.

“Fun” is perhaps the least apt descriptor of Boston College football this year, or really any year since our current head coach took over. The offense is not quite vanilla, because Doug Martin has exercised creativity, but the results are no longer forthcoming. That sort of thing could work to the Hokies’ advantage, because lately the Eagles aren’t moving the ball on anymore.

Virginia Tech might have a bit of an advantage here because they’re still better at defense than Boston College is at offense, but a lot also depends on how much BC still has in the tank after being almost non-competitive in a very emotional rivalry game at home. They’re going to want to win for the seniors, but if the team is spent from a rough year, then it won’t make a difference. Execution is what matters, and to rise up to the challenge of what is still a somewhat decent defense, the Eagles will have to summon up whatever they’ve got left.