Love, Tar Heels stifle BC in 9-3 win
UNC's Austin Love threw seven innings of one-run ball in a comfortable series-opening win on Friday night.
For the second weekend in a row, No. 21 Boston College was up against a premier Friday night starter.
Last weekend, it was Louisville’s Michael Kirian, who allowed three runs in the first two innings but settled in for a five-inning, seven-strikeout victory. On Friday, it was No. 15 North Carolina’s Austin Love. The redshirt sophomore went seven innings, allowing a lone unearned run, and struck out seven to pace the Tar Heels to a 9-3 series-opening victory.
UNC (11-5, 7-3 Atlantic Coast) shortstop Danny Serretti hit a three-run home run in the first inning and drove in five runs on the day as the Eagles (10-6, 2-5) lost their fourth straight conference game—and their third with ace Mason Pelio on the mound. Despite outhitting the Tar Heels, 8-7, BC left eight runners on base and committed three errors in the defeat.
“We got to worry about playing better and cleaner baseball,” head coach Mike Gambino said. “We were doing that for four weeks. When you play sloppy baseball against a good team, you get thumped a touch.
Pelio, who gave up six earned runs in a loss to Duke and five against the Cardinals, did show flashes of his high ceiling on Friday. After Serretti went deep in the first inning—aided by an infield single and a walk—Pelio settled down and retired the next nine batters he faced. He ran out of gas in the fifth, walking the bases loaded and allowing another run on a fielder’s choice groundout, but he had more control over the game than starts prior.
“Mason threw the ball great tonight,” Gambino said. “You make a couple of plays and he gives us seven innings. We just have to tighten up and get back to playing baseball the way we can and the way we have been.”
“You’re starting to see Mason turn into Mason again,” he added. “I think we’re going to see really good Mason against Clemson next weekend”
Love, meanwhile, worked effectively out of trouble in each of the first five innings. In the first three frames, all five of the Eagles’ baserunners to reach did so with two outs and were promptly stranded. BC broke through in the fourth inning for a run, but it wasn’t without controversy.
Cameron Leary drew a leadoff walk, then took off for second on a stolen base attempt. UNC catcher Tomas Frick went to throw him out but seemed partially blocked by the Eagles’ hitter at the plate, Dante Baldelli. Frick’s throw sailed wide and into the outfield, allowing Leary to coast into third, and no interference was called by the home plate umpire. Baldelli followed with a sacrifice fly to bring in the only run BC would manage off of Love.
Love left two in scoring position in the fifth by striking out Jack Cunningham and getting Vince Cimini to groundout. That kickstarted a run of eight straight retired to end his outing, as he worked a pair of 1-2-3 frames. Love is 4-0 with a 2.25 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 32 innings since moving into the rotation this year.
Meanwhile, a trio of freshman relievers came out of the bullpen for the Eagles. Charlie Coon couldn’t finish the sixth, hitting two batters and giving up a two-run double to Johnny Castagnozzi and a RBI single to Angel Zarate. Joey Ryan fared better, getting the final out of the sixth and working a scoreless seventh before Seretti got a RBI single off of him in the eighth.
At that point, the Eagles were trailing 8-1, but they finally got some offense against UNC reliever Nik Pry. Luke Gold hit his team-leading seventh home run of the year on just the second pitch Pry threw, muscling it out to almost straightaway center field. Gold was a bright spot in the loss, going 4-for-4 with a trio of singles and the home run to raise his season average to .379.
“He’s so strong,” Gambino said. “That ball got in off the label just a touch and he still drove it out of the park. Then staying through the breaking ball for a single to right-center just shows his development as a hitter—to be able to take that breaking ball and keep that lane through the zone and hit the ball hard.”
Leary tacked on a RBI triple off of Pry, but he was stranded just 90 feet from scoring after back-to-back strikeouts. BC, down by five, turned to John West for the ninth and he struggled to find the strike zone with three straight two-out walks. The last one sailed wide on a wild pitch to score a run and push the deficit to six. There was no dramatic ninth-inning rally in the cards, either, as Pry worked a 1-2-3 ninth and got Sal Frelick—who went 1-for-5—swinging to end the game.
The Eagles have now given up at least five runs in their last eight games, five of which have been losses. That’s corresponded with an uptick in errors (six in last two ACC games) and control troubles (nine hit batsmen in last three games). As Gambino noted, BC has been playing sloppy, and needs to right the ship before a second weekend series in a row gets away from them.
“We didn’t play completely clean baseball and we didn’t play baseball the way we’d like to play,” Gambino said. “This is not taking anything away from North Carolina—they’re obviously a really good baseball team—but we gave them five runs.”
UP NEXT: BC’s Emmet Sheehan (20 IP, 4.90 FIP) vs. UNC’s Max Carlson (21.1 IP, 4.13 FIP) today at 3 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra.