Sheehan Struggles, Eagles Blown Out in Series Finale
BC's pitching staff walked 10 batters and gave up 15 hits as Northern Illinois avoided a sweep with a 12-3 win on Sunday.
In baseball, control means that a pitcher can put a pitch where he wants to put it. Command, meanwhile, means that the pitcher can reliably make a given pitch go the way it’s supposed to—whether it’s keeping a fastball staying straight, making sure a curveball doesn’t hang, or avoiding having a slider break in where it doesn’t belong.
On Sunday afternoon, Boston College’s Emmet Sheehan—a promising sophomore with a mid-90s fastball and a potentially potent pitch mix—struggled with both. Sheehan labored through 2 2/3 innings, allowing five earned runs on five hits and six walks, and the Eagles dug an early 5-1 hole that they couldn’t get out of in an eventual 12-3 defeat to Northern Illinois.
Coming into this season, Sheehan was pegged as a pitcher on BC’s staff poised for a jump. A 6-foot-5, 215-pound righthander, Sheehan has hit 96 mph on his fastball and has a strong arsenal of pitches that features a slider, a curveball, and a changeup. The biggest question about Sheehan, one that head coach Mike Gambino posed in an interview with D1Baseball.com this fall, was—in reference to his pitch arsenal—“it’s frontline stuff — can you pitch with it?”
Against the Huskies in the finale of a four-game weekend series, Sheehan showed similar signs of the issues that plagued him in 2019. Last season, as a true freshman, Sheehan struck out an impressive 20 batters in 14 innings—but also walked 21 batters en route to a 4.50 ERA. Those control issues popped up on Sunday as three of the first four batters to face him reached base via a pair of hit by pitches and a walk. Sheehan escaped that jam with a double play, but it proved only a sign of things to come.
He gave up a RBI single to Alex Rodriguez in the second, then had to escape another bases-loaded jam created by a pair of walks. In the third, he surrendered back-to-back doubles to break a 1-1 tie, then loaded the bases with a walk and a single. His 77th and final pitch of the afternoon was a bases-loaded walk of Rodriguez.
It was a tough day for the sophomore, but he wasn’t the only BC pitcher on the day to struggle with control. The Eagles trotted out four pitchers in total, and the first three combined to walk 10 batters and give up 15 hits. Throw in the fact that the Huskies also stranded 14 runners, and the final outcome could’ve been even more lopsided.
In the third, Northern Illinois tacked on two more runs—both charged to Sheehan—against reliever Michael Marzonie. They came on a throwing error on a pickoff attempt from catcher Peter Burns and a wild pitch. That put the Huskies up 5-1, and they’d score runs in each of the next four innings to come away with the comfortable nine-run victory that saved them from a series sweep.
Northern Illinois starter Erik Hedmark gave up a pair of runs—Joe Suozzi had a RBI groundout and a sacrifice fly—but was otherwise impressive over six innings of work. He struck out four and allowed just four hits, even retiring eight in a row at one point. By the time he exited, the Huskies had staked him more than enough run support and led 10-2.
Marzonie gave up a RBI triple in the fourth to Jordan Larson, who went 4-for-4 with four runs scored and two RBIs. In the fifth, his final inning of work, he surrendered a two-out double to Brady Huebbe that brought in another run. His replacement, Zach Pitzl, couldn’t stem the tide. Pitzl—making his collegiate debut—gave up run-scoring hits to Larson, Nick Drobushevich, and Matt Barnes in a three-run sixth.
Then, he immediately ran into trouble in the seventh, getting a groundout but then walking two and giving up a RBI double to Kam Smith before Rodriguez knocked in yet another run with a single. The only BC pitcher to have success was Ryan Smith, a sophomore, who entered and set down all five batters that he faced.
It was an off day for the Eagles’ pitching staff, and it didn’t help that the lineup—which scored 26 runs in the three previous games—couldn’t manufacture much against Hedmark. Gambino sent out all pinch hitters in the seventh against reliever Connor Langreder and Lucas Stalman managed to drive in a run with a single, but the game was all but over.
The first loss of the season always stings, especially for a young starter like Sheehan that was hoping to avoid the control issues that he grappled with last season and start a new year strong. Still, with the likes of Cody Morissette, Luke Gold, and Jack Cunningham combining to go 0-for-7 in the heart of the order, the Eagles were going to be facing an uphill climb since they couldn’t put runs on the board.
Next Up
BC heads home for a week, then travel to another warm climate for a three-game series against No. 9 Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz., next weekend. The Sun Devils took two of three from Villanova and dropped a 5-0 decision to No. 8 Michigan over the weekend. They’ll play on Friday and Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. ET, then wrap up the series on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. All games will be streamed on ASU’s Pac-12 Network.
Image courtesy of BC Athletics