Grand slams sink Eagles in series opener against Florida State
The Seminoles hit three home runs, including two grand slams, in a 10-2 win on Friday night.
Entering the weekend, Florida State led the conference in home runs and strikeouts. Boston College head coach Mike Gambino stressed before the series that it was a lineup that even with high strikeout numbers, it’s one you have to be careful with and can’t miss spots.
That last point rang true on Friday night as the Seminoles clubbed three home runs—two grand slams—against three different Eagles’ pitchers in what ended up as a comfortable 10-2 victory.
Florida State’s (17-13, 12-10 Atlantic Coast) Matheu Nelson clubbed a grand slam for his ACC-leading 14th home run in the third off BC (14-17, 4-15) spot starter Joe Mancini, Nander De Sedas greeted reliever Joe Vetrano with a solo home run in the fourth, and Tyler Martin capped the night with a grand slam of his own off of Will Hesslink in the seventh.
The fireworks helped Seminoles’ southpaw Parker Messick earn his third win of the season with five innings of two-run ball, and four Florida State relievers combined for four scoreless innings to secure the win.
MOMENT’S THAT MATTERED:
Mancini’s command: With Mason Pelio unavailable, Mancini was thrust into a prime-time Friday night role. Through two innings, he looked very similar to the pitcher who spun solid outings against UConn and Northeastern. He had a 10-pitch first inning, then worked around a walk in the second.
The final two batters of that second inning both worked full counts, though, setting the stage for the third inning. Mancini went on to have seven three-ball counts in the third inning and three of those came during walks to load the bases with two outs for Nelson. The Seminoles first hit of the game was a loud one, as Nelson made no mistake on a 3-2 pitch that Mancini left in the zone and launched a no-doubt grand slam.
Mancini would escape further damage after giving up a double and issuing a walk, but his pitch count soared up to 78 through three innings with a majority of those pitches being balls, so the Eagles went to the bullpen.
Bullpen bombs: The second pitch Vetrano threw out of the bullpen for the Eagles to De Sedas was crushed as well for a solo home run to push the Seminoles lead to 5-0. Vetrano played with fire for much of his outing, stranding two in the fourth, two in the fifth, and another in the sixth. In what was his fourth inning of work, Vetrano gave up a leadoff single and issued a walk before being pulled for Hesslink.
Hesslink, a senior left-hander who’d made his first appearance of the year last week against North Carolina State, hit the first batter he saw. With the bases loaded and the Seminoles’ lead at three, Hesslink got two quick outs and came a single pitch away from ending the inning. Instead, his 0-2 offering was a hanging 77 mile-per-hour offspeed pitch that Martin yanked over the taller fence in right field for Florida State’s second grand slam of the day.
Instead of a narrow three-run deficit heading into the final innings, it was now seven, and the Eagles went down quietly.
Missed chances: The driving theme throughout the game for the Eagles was leaving runners on base. Messick struck out seven, but it was far from a comfortable start for the Florida State left-hander. BC left two on in the first, then stranded Peter Burns, Brian Dempsey, and Ramon Jimenez after they hit doubles in the second, third, and fourth innings, respectively.
The Eagles finally pushed two runs across in the fifth, but didn’t fully make the most of a huge opportunity. Trailing 5-0, Chris Galland and Sal Frelick had infield singles before Dempsey drew a walk. (Speaking of Dempsey, he went 4-for-4 with a walk to reach base all five times. That shift from leadoff to No. 2 in the lineup really worked.)
Cody Morissette brought in a run thanks to an E6, but unfortunately he left with an injury that looked eerily similar to the one that cost him seven games earlier this season. Jack Cunningham followed with a sacrifice fly, but Vince Cimini struck out swinging and Jimenez grounded out to leave two more on.
That proved to be one of the last times the Eagles’ were within striking distance, as after a 1-2-3 seventh, BC was staring at a seven-run deficit when it came up to bat in the eighth.
Featured Image Courtesy of FSU/BC ACC Network Extra