BC Baseball Loses First Two to Duke; Eliminated from ACC Tourney Chase

Boston College baseball’s odds of making the ACC Tournament were very remote before the final series of the year began; on Friday, with one game to go, they’re gone.

The Eagles fell in both Thursday and Friday’s contests to the Duke Blue Devils and were officially eliminated from postseason play. With those two losses, BC has dropped to 21-33 (9-20), and as of now, they are in last place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

On Thursday afternoon, Duke won, 7-4. BC had a 2-0 lead early but could not hold it, allowing Duke to score the next six runs in the 6th and 7th innings to put the game away. Hunter Gordon (2-8) took the loss for the Eagles, going 6.0 IP with six earned runs, eight hits, one walk and two strikeouts. BC’s offense showed a little bit of life, pounding out ten hits; Marc Perdios and Blake Butera each had two of them. Anthony Melchionda drove in two runs with his sixth home run of the season in the bottom of the 7th.

Friday afternoon’s contest was a 4-1 victory for the Blue Devils over Boston College. Duke jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third inning, and that was all they would need as starting pitcher Trent Swart pitched a complete game. Swart allowed just one earned run and struck out ten Eagles to earn his fourth win of the year. Eric Stevens took his third loss, going 3.2 IP and allowing all four runs on five hits while walking three. Geoffrey Murphy gave BC an impressive 5.1 IP in long relief, allowing no runs, no walks, and just three hits out of the bullpen.

Matt Pare was the offensive player of Friday’s game for BC, going 2-for-4 and driving in the Eagles’ only run in the bottom of the 3rd on a solo home run.

BC’s season finale is on Saturday at 1 p.m.