Month-by-Month: March

From a program-high national ranking to just a game above .500. Beware the Ides of March?

This is the second piece of a four-part series that will look at each month of the 2021 season in depth. Included is a schedule recap, hitter and pitcher of the month, and other notes from that portion of the year. Stay tuned for player-by-player year in reviews as well as other longer-form pieces. For February, click here.

For Boston College, March could be split into two categories.

The first week and a half went about as well as you could’ve hoped. The rest of the month? Not so much.

The Eagles opened March with a last-minute scheduling change to head down to Auburn and came away with a series win in dramatic fashion. They also won their first two midweek games to push their record to 9-2. They earned their first national ranking since 2016, climbing as high as No. 13 in the Baseball America poll. Simply put, the college baseball world had taken notice of the Eagles and it seemed like they had a good chance to carry that momentum forward.

From there, though, the month went downhill. BC was swept twice and won just one conference game across three weekends, ending the month just a game above .500 thanks to a 3-9 stretch. The bullpen was quickly identified as an area of concern as the Eagles squandered leads to Louisville, North Carolina, and Clemson in ugly fashion. Runs were also harder to come by as BC was held to four or fewer runs in six of its nine conference games.

Here’s a look at the games, stats, and highlights:

Games

• MIDWEEKS: The Eagles fared well in their first four midweek games, even if they weren’t particularly comfortable wins. They snuck past Rhode Island, 6-4, on the strength of six unanswered runs and then used the long ball to triumph over Maine. The game against Holy Cross was an absolute slugfest with a combined 30 runs—BC scored twice as many runs against the Crusaders as it had in its previous three games against Louisville—as the Eagles’ came out on top, 16-12. The other non-conference win was against Merrimack as the Eagles erased an eight-run deficit and came all the way back for the win. The last midweek game of the month was an ugly one, though, as the bullpen coughed up 12 runs to UConn after a strong start from Joe Mancini and the team was blanked.

• It’s impossible to sum up the Auburn series in one bullet point, but here goes. On Friday, Sal Frelick and Luke Gold both hit a pair of home runs as the Eagles cruised to an 8-2 victory. The script was flipped on Saturday as the Tigers came roaring back, chasing Emmet Sheehan early and handing BC an ugly 16-1 setback. It seemed like another blowout loss was en route on Sunday with Auburn leading 9-1 heading to the ninth, but Frelick & Co. engineered nothing short of a miracle with two outs to come back and win 11-9. (I strongly recommend reading my recap on that one because it was an unbelievable game.)

• Riding a high of the comeback win, BC won its midweek and arrived in Kentucky to take on a top-15 Louisville side. It was a disappointingly close series that saw the Cardinals come away with a sweep. The Eagles led 3-0 on Friday, only to give up seven unanswered in a 7-3 defeat. Saturday’s game saw the offense quiet again, managing just two hits in a 5-0 shutout. Then, on Sunday, BC led 4-0 and 6-4, but Louisville rallied against the Eagles’ bullpen to come away with an 8-6 win.

  

• After winning the slugfest over Holy Cross, BC welcomed in a North Carolina side for its first home conference series. Tar Heels’ ace Austin Love threw a gem on Friday night, hurling seven innings of one-run ball as UNC cruised to a 9-3 win. BC bounced back behind Sheehan on Saturday as he gave up a lone run over seven innings himself for a convincing 10-3 blowout. That set up a Sunday rubber match that came down to the final inning, where Tar Heels’ shortstop Danny Serretti broke a tie with a RBI triple to claim a 5-4 victory.

• After slipping past Merrimack, BC was looking to bounce back from five losses in its last six games as it hosted Clemson. It turned out to be a brutal weekend for team morale. On Friday night, BC led 10-6 through five innings only to see the bullpen give up 10 runs across the next three frames for a tough 16-12 loss. Due to rain, the teams met for a doubleheader on Saturday, and it went about as poorly as it could for the Eagles. They pushed the first game to extra innings, only for the bullpen to let in six runs in the 10th inning of a 9-3 loss. The second game saw Clemson ride the momentum to five runs in the first four innings en route to a comfortable 7-2 victory.

Team Stats

Record: 7-10

Hitting: 6.3 R/G, .280/.358/.436, 103 OPS+, 16 HR, 10 BB%, 18 K%

Starting Pitching: 63.2 IP, 7.49 ERA, 1.68 WHIP, 6.05 FIP, 13 BB%, 18 K%
Bullpen: 86.1 IP, 7.92 ERA, 1.89 WHIP, 4.52 FIP, 9 BB%, 19 BB%

Monthly Awards

Hitter of the Month: Luke Gold, 3B
.338/.385/.710, 143 OPS+, 18 RBI, 14 R, 7 HR

It was a monster month for Gold as he racked up seven home runs and 18 RBIs, both team highs. The sophomore third baseman was held in check by Louisville and Clemson—managing just three combined hits and striking out eight times—but was absolutely dominant the rest of the month. Against North Carolina and Auburn, Gold went 10-for-23 (.435) with five home runs and nine RBIs. He crushed the go-ahead, game-winning home run against the Tigers, capping a weekend in which he left the yard three times. He added to his home run total with long balls against Maine and Holy Cross in midweek games, driving in five runs in those two victories.

Honorable Mentions:

• Vince Cimini, 2B — .381/.491/.524, 6 2B, 10 R

With Cody Morissette limited to 10 games due to injury, the Eagles turned to their utility infielder in Cimini and he immediately made an impact. The sophomore nearly hit .400 in 12 games and displayed an impressive eye at the plate with near-even walks and strikeouts. Against Clemson, Cimini went 5-for-12 with three walks and scored a trio of runs. He wouldn’t leave the lineup again, shuffling around the infield positions the rest of the season.

• Sal Frelick, CF —.380/.451/.676, 7 2B, 4 H, 13 RBI

When you have a season like Frelick did, you’re going to appear in this section often. The center fielder nearly hit .400 across 17 games, clubbing 12 extra base hits and coming up clutch time and time again. Outside of the Louisville series—where he managed just two hits—Frelick was on another level. He clubbed three home runs against Auburn, including the clutch game-tying one, and had a seven-hit weekend against Clemson.

Pitcher of the Month: Charlie Coon, LHP
1-1, 15 IP, 4.70 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 1.78 FIP, 28 K%, 3 BB%

It wasn’t a banner month for the Eagles pitching staff as they finished with a 7.74 team ERA, but Coon was one of the few highlights. A freshman southpaw, Coon displayed poise over a team-high eight appearances and 15 innings. On the month, Coon had a slightly inflated 4.20 ERA—compared to a 1.78 FIP—and posted a 28 K% to just a 3 BB%. It was impressive control numbers for the first-year lefty and he was one of the most reliable arms in a taxed bullpen.

Honorable Mentions:

It was tough to pick pitchers for this section, as most had an outing (or several) where things went sideways. Consider Joey Walsh’s month, for instance.

Against Clemson: 1.2 IP, 7 H, 9 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
Against everyone else: 13.1 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 6 BB, 18 K, 2.70 ERA, 2.56 FIP, 1.05 WHIP

The second line? Dominant. Exactly what you would expect from a relief ace. The first? Enough to throw your rate stats out of window for at least another 10 appearances. Unfortunately, that was the case frequently with the Eagles’ pitching staff this season.

Monthly Quotables:

“It’s awesome for a team learning how to handle things when they don’t go their way. They didn’t go our way yesterday, and it looked for a bit like they weren’t going our way today. The guys did a great job of handling it and I’m proud of the group. It’s easy to go away at that point, and they didn’t.” — Gambino after the 11-9 win over Auburn.

“You’re not going to play a season as long as we play, as play as many good teams as we play, without hitting a few bumps in the road. Honestly, we talked about that after Auburn. We’re playing well but there’s going to be bumps in the road. Obviously we’re not happy with that weekend but now it’s about how we react, what we’re going to do next.” — Gambino after the weekend sweep at the hands of Louisville.

“It’s just one of those funks and it happens in a season. We have to play better, we’re capable of playing better, and I believe we will play better. We kind of got into a spot where we pressing as a team. We were trying to do too much offensively because we weren’t pitching it great.” — Gambino after the Clemson sweep.

Featured Images Courtesy of BC Athletics