The Boston College Eagles overcame a three run first inning deficit to pick up a 9-6 victory over the #17 ranked Virginia Cavaliers.
Boston College sent sophomore RHP John Leonard to the mound while Virginia countered with junior RHP Andrew Carraway.
The first inning for the Cavaliers started off with a leadoff walk to Phil Gosselin and a single by John Hicks up the middle to put runners on first and second. Freshman sensation Danny Hultzen followed with a home run over the right centerfield fence on a 3-2 pitch to put the Cavaliers up 3-0 before recording an out.
The game would stay 3-0 until the bottom of the second inning when the Eagles offense would come alive with two runs. Mickey Wiswall lead off the inning with a home run over the centerfield fence to account for the first run of the inning. Michael Belfiore followed with a fly out to centerfield to account for the first out of the inning. Barry Butera then grounded out to shortstop for the second out. Garret Smith hit a rocket groundball to Virginia third baseman Steve Proscia who made a diving stop but could not get Smith out at first base. Mike Sudol would follow with a double into the left centerfield gap which reached the wall allowing Smith to come around with the second run of the game for the Eagles.
The Eagles would tie the game in the fourth inning on a Barry Butera homer to right center field on a 2-0 pitch. The Virginia Cavaliers offense would not stay idle for long as they regained the lead in the fifth inning by scoring two runs. Danny Hultzen got his fourth RBI of the day with a double to right center field and would eventually score on a Tyler Cannon sacrifice fly to center field to give the Cavs the 5-3 lead.
Boston College would respond again in the bottom of the seventh inning. Mike Sudol and Brad Zapensas would led off the inning with back to back singles and would be moved up a base by a Robert Anston sacrifice bunt to third base. Neal Davis would relieve Andrew Carraway with the runners on second and third and Boston College countered by sending a pinch hitter in Harry Darling to the plate for Andrew Lawrence. Mike Sudol would score from third and Zapensas would advance to third base on a wild pitch to put the score at 5-4. Darling then hit a groundball to Virginia shortstop Tyler Cannon who lost his balance as he was trying to make the throw allowing the tying run to score and let Darling reach first base. Virginia was able to get out of the inning without receiving any additional damage sending the game to the eighth inning with the score knotted at 5.
Virginia would again respond in the eighth inning as they took the lead again. Steven Proscia would lead the inning off with a single to left field. After a Tyler Cannon flyout, Proscia would steal second base to put himself in scoring position with only one out. He would eventually score the tiebreaking run on a John Barr single to left field to give the Cavaliers a 6-5 lead. Boston College was able to get out of the inning without giving up any more runs in the frame.
The Boston College offense would explode in the bottom of the eighth inning. Michael Belfiore and Barry Butera would start the inning off with back to back full count walks. BC head coach Mik Aoki called for Garrett Smith to lay down a bunt to move the runners up. He laid down a perfect bunt down the third base line where UVA pitcher Matt Packer tried to flip the ball to third base to get the lead runner but it was far too late thus loading the bases with no outs. Mike Sudol would follow with a fly out to left field but it was far deep enough to get Belfiore home from third base to tie up the score at 6. Brad Zapensas would follow with a double to right center field to give the Eagles their first lead of the day at 7-6 and put runners on second and third. Anthony Melchionda would hit a single back through the box to score the runners from second and third and give the Eagles the 9-6 lead.
Mike Belfiore would be able to shut down the Virginia Cavaliers offense in the ninth inning as he sent them down 1-2-3 and give the Eagles the second game of the series.
The winning pitcher for Boston College was Mike Belfiore who is now 4-0 after pitching two innings where he allowed a run while Matt Packer gets the loss which drops him to 1-4 on the year after giving up four runs in 1.1 innings of work.
Boston College’s record improves to 24-14 and 10-8 in ACC play while Virginia drops to 29-8-1 and 10-7-1 in ACC play.
