Afternoon Quickie: Baseball Starts NC State Series; A Word on the Commonwealth Classic

Boston College baseball is within a few games of the last spot in the 2012 ACC Tournament, and they have twelve games to go. The next three of those will give us some indication as to whether or not the Eagles will make a late push, as they head to Raleigh to face the NC State Wolfpack.

BC sits in 12th place in the conference and last in the Atlantic Division, having compiled just a 5-13 record in the ACC. The Wolfpack, on the other hand, are in second in the division with an 11-7 record (24-11 overall). Clearly, they will be the heavy favorites this weekend at home, but if the Eagles are able to steal a game, they would definitely take it. Anything better than that and suddenly, BC is looking like they have a pulse. Anything worse — as in, getting swept — and the Eagles will be 5-16 and probably a few games further back. Simply put, BC needs to show up this weekend to give themselves a chance.

First pitch is at 6:30pm.

In the last few days, there has been a big to-do about Boston College cancelling its basketball series with the Massachusetts Minutemen, otherwise known as the “Commonwealth Classic.” The stated reason from BC Athletics has been a scheduling conflict as the ACC will soon increase to 18 conference games, thereby whacking two non-conference games.

I had not commented previously because scheduling is only of importance to me when big-time opponents are involved; otherwise, I tend not to give a flying [expletive], especially when we’re talking about a “good for New England” game.

People who read this site know that our athletic director gets no free passes from me, but I am inclined to believe that trimming down the schedule had something to do with it. Might there have been other factors? Sure, but if fear was one of them, it would be both stupid and an extreme overreaction. As Eagles fans (and Minutemen fans for that matter) are doubtlessly aware, UMass put a 36-point ass-whooping on BC in November. Some out there believe that BC is running away scared after the team of freshmen was embarrassed in their third-ever game. What they forget is that the Eagles went 10-1 in the previous 11 meetings, and one would logically conclude that it’d take a lot more than disgracing a team of raw 18-year olds in a series BC recently dominated.

Still, it would be interesting to find out why UMass was the team singled out and not, say, one of the lesser “good for New England” opponents. There is probably more to the story.

Both Boston College tennis teams played NC State in their respective gender-specific conference tournaments on Thursday — and both lost. The men were swept, 4-0, while the women lost, 4-3. The Eagle men will finish last in the conference while the women are in ninth.

Another worthy Boston College cause comes your way. I tweeted about this yesterday: the Pete Frates #3 Fund. Frates is a former BC baseball player who was recently diagnosed with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

When I saw the posting, the name rang a bell — he was in one of my courses in my junior year at BC, and every time my partner and I debated in front of the class that semester, he was our “opponent.” He seemed like a good kid then, but regardless of that, he deserves our support, even if just moral support in the form of well-wishes.