Boston College Drops Game Two To Louisville as Bats Stay Quiet
Boston College and Louisville met for the second game of their three game series Saturday afternoon as BC attempted to avoid losing their first series of the year. But it wasn't to be as the Eagles lost Saturday's game 5-0.
Louisville right hander Glenn Albanese took the bump for his second start of the season and got out to a fast start retiring 12 of the first 14 Eagles that came to the plate. The only production BC was able to produce in the first four innings was a two-out single from Luke Gold in the first and a walk from Vince Cimini. Gold has now recorded a hit in all but two games for the Eagles this season and continues to provide productive at-bats in the heart of the lineup. Cimini earned his first start of the season in place of everyday second baseman Cody Morissette who is day to day after aggravating his hand yesterday in a slide into home.
The start from the Eagles’ right hander Emmett Sheehan was not as smooth. Sheehan came into Saturday’s contest with three starts under his belt; the first two yielding just 2 earned runs in 12 innings pitched. But the junior struggled in his last outing against Auburn lasting just two frames while surrendering 8 earned runs, and his struggles continued in the bottom half of the first. Sheehan walked two of the first batters he faced and before the Eagles could even blink both runners had stolen around to second and third. The Cardinals came into the series with 40 stolen bases and their speed was on full display early. With runners on second and third, Sheehan started behind 2-0 to preseason All-American Alex Binelas. The Eagles’ starter worked the count even, but Binelas showed why he was projected to be one of the nation’s best hitters, blasting one down the right field line and giving the Cardinals a 3-0 lead. Binelas had been struggling batting just .137 prior to Saturday, but the left hander was able to turn on Sheehan’s pitch for his first homerun of the season.
From there, Sheehan got the next two Louisville hitters to go down by way of the strikeout, getting out of the inning.
The next two frames Sheehan was able to strand a couple of Louisville runners before running into more trouble in the bottom half of the fourth. After retiring the first two batters that came to the plate, Sheehan surrendered a two-out base hit to the Cardinals’ nine-hole hitting shortstop Christian Knapczky giving his middle-infield counterpart Cooper Bowman a chance to step in. Bowman smacked Sheehan’s 1-0 offering over the leftfield wall giving Louisville a 5-0 lead. Boston College had a chance to cut into the 5 run deficit in the top half of the next frame after Louisville skipper Dan McDonnell elected to pull Albanese after he got the first out of the inning in favor of freshman left hander Tate Kuehner. The move quickly backfired as the lefty could not retire either of the left hand batters he faced as DH Joey Vetrano and Peter Burns both drew walks. The plug was quickly pulled on Kuehner and fellow freshman left hander Evan Webster inherited the damage. Webster got Dante Baldelli to ground into a 6-4-3 double play and the Eagles’ threat was erased.
Each team went 1-2-3 until the top half of the eighth inning when Baldelli made up for his mistake with a two out double. In the meantime, Emmet Sheehan’s day concluded with 6 innings pitched and 7 Ks, the only mishaps being the two homeruns. Baldelli was left stranded and the Eagles remained scoreless. Charlie Coon completed the job for Sheehan keeping Louisville at bay with 2 scoreless frames. BC was able to produce one runner with two outs in the ninth on an error, but they could not channel any of the magic from last weekend at Auburn and Louisville left-hander Kaleb Corbett shut the door to give the Cardinals a 5-0 win.
The Eagles will look to salvage one win in the series at 1:00pm tomorrow. The BC bats will need to come alive in the series finale as they produced just 2 hits all afternoon today. The loss officially gives the Eagles their first series loss of the season.
