Eagles held to two hits in 5-0 loss to No. 10 Louisville
Cardinals pitching has now held No. 13 BC scoreless for 16 straight innings and claimed the weekend series.
Another game, another strong pitching performance for the No. 10 Louisville Cardinals.
Even though starter Glenn Albanese was on a strict 60-pitch limit in his first appearance in 21 days, he still made it into the fifth and allowed just one hit with five strikeouts. Then, the duo of Evan Webster and Kaleb Corbett carried Louisville the rest of the way for a combined two-hit shutout of No. 15 Boston College in a 5-0, weekend series-clinching win on Saturday afternoon.
The Eagles lineup—missing Cody Morissette and Jack Cunningham due to injuries—couldn’t get anything going and extended their scoreless innings streak to 16 dating back to the third inning of Friday’s 7-3 setback. BC struck out seven times, five looking, and only had two at bats the entirety of the game with runners in scoring position.
Louisville’s Alex Binelas hit his first home run of the season with a 379-foot drive to right field with two on in the first, then Cooper Bowman launched a two-out, two-run home run to left in the fourth. Those two hits would prove to be all the runs the Cardinals could get off of Eagles’ starter Emmet Sheehan and reliever Charlie Coon, but it was more than enough run support.
Sheehan, after issuing two walks and giving up the home run to Binelas in the first, got better as the game went on. The junior went six innings and was charged with five runs on five hits with three walks and seven strikeouts. He stranded two on in the second with a big strikeout of Levi Usher, then worked around a leadoff single in the third by retiring the 4-5-6 hitters in Louisville’s order. Sheehan was almost out of the fourth when Bowman went deep, but he bounced back to set down the final seven batters he faced.
Coon was even more impressive, entering a 5-0 game and tasked with preventing Louisville from extending the lead any further. The crafty left-hander did just that, retiring all six batters he faced. It wasn’t the bottom of the Cardinals lineup, either. Coon—who threw three innings of one-run ball against Maine in the midweek—retired the top five hitters in Louisville’s order and struck out three. He’s made five appearances on the young season and has 12 strikeouts in 9.2 innings and has allowed a lone earned run.
Still, the five-run deficit seemed almost insurmountable as the game went on. Albanese pitched into the fifth and only allowed two baserunners—a Luke Gold single and a walk of Vince Cimini. When he exited, reliever Tate Kuehner entered and walked the first two batters he faced, so he was promptly pulled for Webster. The freshman reliever quickly induced an inning-ending double play off the bat of Dante Baldelli and was nearly unhittable after that.
Webster mowed through the Eagles lineup, retiring the first seven batters he faced before Baldelli doubled with two outs in the eighth. Similarly to Friday night, Baldelli was stranded, as Webster got Brian Dempsey to fly out harmlessly to right field. Webster turned the ball over to Corbett for the ninth and he worked around a two-out error and struck out Cameron Leary to end the game.
It was a tough day at the plate for the Eagles as Gold and Baldelli were the only two to manage hits. Sal Frelick went 0-for-4, just the second time he’s been held hitless this season and the first time he didn’t reach base. Dempsey went 0-for-4 out of the leadoff spot a day after going 0-for-5. When two mainstays are out of the lineup, having the 1-2 hitters go 0-for-8 together is never a recipe for success.
A silver lining has been the bullpen, with Joey Walsh (who threw on Friday) and Coon combining for 5.2 solid innings. On Sunday, with Joe Vetrano listed as the opener and Alex Stiegler likely to follow, head coach Mike Gambino will have a plethora of arms to choose from should the bullpen come into play early.
Images Courtesy of ACC Network Extra