Boston College Baseball Splits Final Two Games of 2014 Season
By Joe Micik
The Boston College Eagles baseball team has split their final two games of the 2014 season to the Clemson Tigers this weekend.
Between Friday and Saturday’s 1-1 record, Boston College finishes the year with a record of 22-33 (10-20). Birdball closed the season going 2-6 in their final eight games.
On Friday, in the series’ second game against the #25 Tigers, the Eagles were able to ride the hot pitching of ace starter Andrew Chin to a 3-1 victory. Chin would go the distance for a one-run, two-hit complete game, facing just four batters over the minimum while striking out six. The only run Chin allowed in the third inning was unearned.
Chin’s offense did not give him a great deal of support, but what they provided was enough. All of that scoring came in the third inning, with Joe Cronin providing the game-winning hit: a two-run double to left center. Chris Shaw would follow this up with an RBI single to extend the Boston College lead.
After the third, the scoring ceased on both sides and Clemson recorded just four baserunners for the remainder of the game.
Friday’s contest would go on to be Boston College’s final win of the season, despite the situation appearing to be promising during the season finale on Saturday. In this particular game, the Eagles took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, with the big hit being a two-run single by Tom Bourdon.
Clemson got a run back on a Steven Duggar RBI double in the bottom of the third to make it a 3-1 ballgame, but then Boston College would score the next three runs unanswered with one in the fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively. By the time the Tigers batted in the bottom of the sixth, they trailed Birdball, 6-1.
The Tigers got another run in the bottom of the sixth to climb to within 6-2, but a big top of the seventh put the Eagles ahead 9-2. Gabriel Hernandez singled in Boston College’s seventh run, while Blake Butera knocked in the eighth and Joe Cronin doubled in the ninth.
This lead, however, would not prove safe. Clemson got two back in the bottom of the seventh with a run scoring on an error, followed by an RBI double. In the ninth, Boston College’s bullpen fell apart, giving back all five runs of their cushion to allow the Tigers to tie the game, 9-9. Down to their final out, Jon McGibbon hit a three-run double to right center to tie it.
The game would persist into the 13th inning, as Jay Baum doubled in the tenth and winning run for Clemson, ending Boston College baseball’s 2014 season.