Boston College Baseball Off to Worst Start in Over 15 Years

The Boston College baseball team has not been a stranger to slow starts in recent years. After all, they typically play the first month and change of their season on the road. What the Eagles are doing this year, however, is on a particularly unfortunate level.

With their loss to Bryant on Wednesday — in a game that was supposed to be played at Chestnut Hill but was moved to Rhode Island because the field was unplayable — the Eagles have fallen to 3-19 (0-8) on the season. Boston College has now lost 12 games in a row, their last win coming over three weeks ago at South Florida. BC’s loss to Bryant was of the 13-2 blowout variety; that game being at Boston College probably would not have altered the outcome, but this team could do with a little less traveling.

The only reason we can say that their 22-game start is the worst it has been since at least 1997 is because that’s how far BC’s game-by-game records date back. In reality, this is probably the Eagles’ most win-deprived stretch to open a season in decades, but that’s mere supposition. There have been seasons in the last 15 years that have had BC with losing records, some with high-single digit wins through this many games, but never were they close to 20 losses at this stage.

So far, 2013 has been a disaster for “Birdball.” 22 games into the season and they still have not played a home game, reminding everyone that the facilities are sub-par to put it kindly, and they’ve only won three games since opening day.

The stats are beyond bad. BC is only hitting .206 as a team while the opposition is teeing off on Eagles pitching to the tune of a .323 batting average against. Only one starter, Tom Bourdon, has an average above .250 (.258, to be exact). Offensively, BC has hit only four home runs in 22 games, helping them to a miserable slugging percentage of .268 and a team OPS of just .549. In fact, the Eagles had more errors in their loss to Bryant on Wednesday (5) than they have home runs all year (4).

Boston College is dead last in the ACC not only in hitting, but in pitching. The team ERA is 7.23 with an OPS against of .872; opponents’ team ERA for the season so far is a sparkling 1.96.

Head coach Mike Gambino has his work cut out for him, and don’t be surprised to see new athletic director Brad Bates intervene someday if things remain rough. Since he took over in 2011, Gambino is 40-85 (17-50), and Bates is looking to be proactive about the future of the overall program. That might spell change in baseball in the future, but what ails BC right now is far beyond the coach. The players aren’t getting the job done and the facilities are embarrassing for an ACC program. Unfortunately, neither one of those is a quick fix.