CBB Visit: Clemson at Boston College (March 28th)

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The College Baseball Blog made the trip to Chestnut Hill MA to take in a doubleheader between Boston College and Clemson. The Eagles entered the day with a 15-7 overall record and 5-3 in ACC play while the Clemson Tigers had a 16-7 record while being 5-5 in ACC play.

Game 1: Clemson 7 Boston College 6

The Clemson Tigers and Boston College Eagles took part in a slugfest in Game 1 with Clemson hitting four homers and Boston College hitting three on the day. Clemson sent Casey Harman to the mound while Boston College countered by sending John Leonard to the hill.

Clemson jumped ahead in the first inning as Mike Freeman got a one out single and two batters later came around on a long Ben Paulsen home run over the right field fence to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. Leonard on the first pitch of Matt Sanders at bat threw a ball up and in which caused some chatter from both benches but nothing would ever come about from it.

Boston College came back in the bottom of the 1st inning by getting a leadoff double by Robbie Anston who was subsequently bunted to third. He would come home on a two run no doubt homer by Tony Sanchez to even the score at 2. After a Mickey Wiswall fly out to right field, Mike Belfiore would step to the plate where he continued to pound the ball with a home run to left field to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead after one frame.

The score would stay 3-2 until the bottom of the third inning when Matt Hamlet hit a leadoff double. Tony Sanchez followed but could not get down a sacrifice bunt before striking out swinging. Mickey Wiswall followed with a single to center field which would score Hamlet from second place and expand the Boston College lead up to 4-2.

Clemson would tied the game in the top of the fourth when Brad Miller hit a two run homer over the right center field wall. They would grab the lead in the fifth inning when Brad Schaus hit a two run homer to give the Tigers a 6-4 lead. The teams would trade runs in the seventh inning and Boston College would score one in the bottom of the eighth to set up the final scoreline of 7-6.

The story of Game 1 was how effective Clemson was with two out hits as all three 2 run homers by the TIgers came with two out in the ninth inning.

Game 2: Clemson 5 Boston College 4

Game 2 of the doubleheader today saw Graham Stoneburner take the ball for Clemson while freshman Mike Dennhardt took the hill for Boston College.

The Eagles would again jump out to an early lead as they got a leadoff walk to Mike Belfiore in the bottom of the second inning. Barry Butera popped up his bunt attempt to account for the first out of the inning. Garrett Smith would follow with a single on a perfect hit and run to put runners at the corners with one out. Mike Sudol would follow with a chopper to Clemson third baseman Jason Stolz who made an unbelievable decision to throw to first over coming home or trying for the double play allowing Boston College to get the 1-0 lead. BC would tack on another run in the third inning by getting Robbie Anston around the bases with only one hit in the inning to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead.

Clemson would get on the board in the fourth inning when Ben Paulsen hit a one out triple and scored on a Brad Miller single up the middle to put the Tigers down 2-1.The Tigers would be held scoreless in the rest of the fourth inning and the fifth.

At the start of the sixth inning, Boston College manager Mik Aoki lifted Mike Dennhardt (5 IP, 4 H, 1 ER) in favor of left handed pitcher Pat Dean. He would come into the game and gave up three consectutive hits allowing the Tigers to tie the game at 2.

Clemson would get the lead run in the seventh inning when Clemson put together three hits against Kevin Moran to grab the 3-2 lead. Clemson would expand the lead in the ninth inning when they scored two runs off of Boston College closer Mike Belfiore with the help of two hits. Boston College would put a rally together by scoring a single run in the bottom of the ninth but eventually came up short as Tony Sanchez and Mickey Wiswall could not come through against Clemson closer Matt Vaughn.

The story of Game 2 was the outstanding pitching performance by Graham Stoneburner who pitched 8.1 innings allowing nine hits allowing all three runs. He kept the Boston College hitters off balance and pounded the strikezone after some early game struggles.