Eagles Open Season With Convincing Sweep of Charleston Southern

BC won the three games by an aggregate scoreline of 34-7.

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When you have a lineup that racks up 34 runs, 12 extra-base hits, 13 stolen bases, and draws more walks than strikeouts in three games, your team is in pretty good shape. Couple that with a pitching staff that fans 35 in 27 innings of work and allows just seven runs—five earned—and you’re looking at as one-sided as a weekend series can get.

Boston College baseball got its season off to a terrific start, sweeping Charleston Southern as emphatically as one team can. The Eagles beat their hosts 12-1, 12-4, and 10-2 in a three-game sweep that showcased exactly what head coach Mike Gambino described before the season as a lineup that boasts “a tremendous amount of speed and power.”

Here’s a few things that stood out during the series sweep of the Buccaneers…

1) The power was there in the season opener.

Behind four home runs, the Eagles built a 10-0 lead in the first game of the weekend and coasted to a 12-4 win. Two of the long balls came off of the bat of Dante Baldelli, as the No. 9 hitter launched a leadoff home run in the third to open the scoring and then went deep again in the seventh with a two-run shot. Baldelli’s power surge was surprising, as he entered with just three career home runs and hadn’t gone deep since April 20, 2019—a span of 33 games and almost 680 days. Baldelli finished the weekend with four hits (including a double) and drew three walks. If Baldelli can turn this hot start into consistent success at the plate, he’ll be feeding directly into the teeth of the Eagles’ order out of the nine-spot.

Peter Burns also clubbed a two-run home run in the fourth—his third in his last seven games dating back to 2020—and Cody Morissette tacked on a two-run shot in the fifth. It was one of just two hits on the weekend for the preseason All-American, but he drew six walks and scored seven runs.

2) BC settled in against the Big South Preseason Pitcher of the Year.

Charleston Southern righthander RJ Petit entered this season regarded as one of the conference’s top prospects. Through two innings, he looked like he was ready to go toe-to-toe with BC’s Mason Pelio. He struck out Chris Galland, Sal Frelick, and Brian Dempsey in the first and then got out of a brief jam with a double play in the second. From there, the Eagles were quick to capitalize on any mistakes. Baldelli homered in the third, Burns went deep in the fourth, and BC got to the Bucs bullpen with Morisette’s two-run blast in the fifth that pushed the lead to 5-0.

3) Galland is picking up where he left off.

Galland hit leadoff in all three games and he was a welcome return to the top of the lineup. In his first two years with the Eagles, Galland averaged 37.5 runs scored and 22.5 stolen bases. With the likes of Frelick, Morissette, and Dempsey behind him, he could shatter those marks in 2021. The senior went 5-for-12 over the weekend, scoring seven runs—including scoring in the first inning in the last two games—and stole three bases.

4) The speed is for real.

On the topic of Galland and speed, BC went a perfect 13-for-13 on stolen base attempts against the Bucs. The Eagles have speed up and down the lineup, as not only did Morissette and Frelick swipe multiple bags, but Jack Cunningham did as well. Burns, Luke Gold, and Joe Vetrano got in on the action as well.

5) Vetrano’s debut goes almost perfectly.

In addition to the stolen base, Vetrano went 2-for-4 out of the seven-spot with a RBI double, a run, and a walk. Oh, and he also threw two innings as an opener for Alex Stiegler, allowing a lone unearned run (courtesy of his own throwing error) without a hit while striking out two. The lefthander earned plenty of praise in the preseason from Gambino and it seems likely we’ll see plenty more of the two-way player this season.

6) Gold’s power is something to keep an eye on.

The second baseman didn’t hit one of the team’s four home runs, but he did finish the weekend with five hits—three of which went for extra bases. The sophomore had two doubles and a triple, trailing only Baldelli (11) on the team with nine total bases. Gambino mentioned before the year that “the power was always there, it was just a matter of getting it to be consistently usable.” He’s hitting out of the six spot right now and should have plenty of big at bats with Dempsey and Cunningham right before him.

7) The rotation impresses.

The trio of Pelio, Emmet Sheehan, and Stiegler combined for 15 scoreless innings against Charleston Southern, allowing 10 hits while striking out 18. Pelio had a typical start by his standards (game score of 63), turning in five scoreless innings while scattering three hits and two walks alongside five strikeouts. Sheehan had the start of the weekend, posting a game score of 75 as he struck out nine while allowing two hits and issuing two walks over six shutout innings. It was a lights-out performance from the junior whose consistency will be the key to this rotation’s success. Finally, Stiegler came in after Vetrano’s opening two frames and spun four shutout innings. He allowed five hits but struck out five while not issuing a walk in a strong performance.

8) Bullpen report.

Theres’s not too much you can take away from bullpen usage in a trio of routs, but we did get to see seven different relievers (Stiegler excluded) over the weekend. Michael Marzonie, Jon Campbell Jr., and Daniel Baruch pitched in the first game and struggled some, combining to issue seven walks and hit two batters while giving up four runs in four innings. Joey Walsh turned in a vintage performance in the Saturday nightcap, registering a save (despite entering with his team up six) by throwing three innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts. Finally, on Sunday, with the weekend sweep all but locked up, Samrath Singh, Joey Mancini, and Max Gieg combined to close it out. Mancini was the most impressive, facing four batters and striking out three of them in a scoreless eighth. Gieg and Singh were both working back from injuries in 2020 so it was good to see them back on the mound—Gieg gave up a run in the ninth but stranded the bases loaded to end the weekend.

9) Other notables. Dempsey had a team-high five RBIs, going 5-for-11 while drawing four walks. Cunningham, surprisingly, was the only member of the lineup to not register a hit over the weekend—he went 0-for-10—but did manage to drive in four runs thanks to a few walks and two sacrifice flies.

10) Win probability. There’s also this attempt at a win probability chart (estimated at the start of each inning, not play-by-play) for the first game of the weekend. As you can tell, it was a pretty comfortable victory—and so were the following two.

Let me know if these kind of charts are something you’d like to keep seeing!

The Eagles open up conference play next, facing Duke on the road. The Blue Devils took two of three from Coastal Carolina.