Wake beats Duke; BC fails to qualify for ACC Tournament

The odds were long – not winning-the-Powerball-jackpot long, but long enough – and as it turns out, as widely expected, the idle Boston College Eagles baseball team learned on Friday night that they will not be heading to Greensboro after all. With Wake Forest’s 7-2 win over Duke in Durham, the Demon Deacons won their 11th conference game of the season, meaning the Eagles will be unable to pass them in the conference standings.

The maximum number of conference wins the Eagles (7-19 ACC) can garner this year is ten, if they were to sweep NC State next weekend. Both NC State and Wake Forest – the last two teams in the ACC Tournament field – have 11, thereby guaranteeing themselves a higher win percentage. ACC baseball teams normally play 30 conference games but BC will play 29, and that is due to the series opener against Miami having been cancelled. Unless that game is rescheduled, and I doubt it will be, it is mathematically impossible for the Eagles to exceed 9th place. Since a team needs to be in 8th place or higher to make the tournament, obviously this spells the end.

For what little it’s worth at this point, Virginia Tech did not play last night due to rain. The Eagles would have had to sweep NC State, have Wake lose all of their remaining games, and have Virginia Tech lose no fewer than five out of their last six.

On April 17, in my optimistic/pessimistic predictions for the rest of this season, I pegged BC at a 19-32 (9-20) finish (when you remove the UMass game that is clearly not going to be rescheduled). Given that they’re 16-29 (7-19) with six games to play, allow me to pat myself on the back, since that seems very much like it may happen. I did, unfortunately, also predict that BC would not make the ACC Tournament. For once, I was right about something, and ironically I wish I hadn’t been.