Strong midweek start from Mancini, timely hitting paces Eagles past Northeastern
Joe Mancini threw six innings of two-run ball and BC's bullpen held on in a tight game.
For a minute, it seemed like history was repeating itself. Boston College held a slim lead over Northeastern on Tuesday afternoon, the Huskies had a pair of back-to-back home runs in the sixth to get back into the game, and two runners reached base in the ninth inning to put the winning run at the plate.
Unlike this past weekend in Blacksburg, though, the Eagles’ bullpen wasn’t left hanging their heads. Left-hander Charlie Coon struck out the Huskies top two hitters to register his first career save and BC beat its in-state rival, 5-3.
Much like Alex Stiegler on Sunday, Eagles’ (14-13, 4-11 Atlantic Coast) starter Joe Mancini cruised throughout save for a pair of pitches he’d like back. Those two were deposited over the left field fence by Northeastern’s (10-6) Scott Holzwasser and Jared Dupre over the span of three pitches in the sixth, but otherwise Mancini was really impressive. He turned heads last week with four one-hit innings against Connecticut and needed just 88 pitches to go six in this one.
Mancini allowed two runs on five hits, a walk, and two hit batsmen. He struck out four and pitched to contact well, getting seven groundouts to six flyouts while holding a strong Huskies lineup in check for much of the game. He didn’t give up a hit the first time through the order and worked around a one-out single after the two home runs to end his day with BC up one.
It was yet another promising start from the Eagles rotation, who has now turned in four straight quality starts. Mancini’s six innings followed Mason Pelio (6.2 IP, 3 R), Emmet Sheehan (6.1 IP, 2 R), and Stiegler (6.1 IP, 3 R) from the Virginia Tech series. After inconsistent starting pitching at the start of the year, BC seems to have turned it around and now the primary focus is on the bullpen.
Against Northeastern, it wasn’t always pretty, but the duo of Joe Vetrano and Coon escaped with the hold and save, respectively. Vetrano worked a quick 1-2-3 seventh before giving up a RBI single to Ryan Costello in the eighth. In the ninth, Coon gave up a leadoff single and issued a one-out walk, but struck out Ben Malgeri and Holzwasser to finish off the win.
The Eagles’ lineup pushed across five runs despite the top two in the order combining for an 0-for-8 day. After the Huskies—who decided on a bullpen day after 10 days of inaction—turned to Wyatt Scotti in the second, BC jumped on him. Luke Gold beat out an infield single, then scored on Vince Cimini’s RBI double to right-center. Cameron Leary drew a walk and after a well-executed double-steal, Cimini came home on Parker Landwehr’s groundout.
In the sixth, after Northeastern reliever Eric Yost had a pair of scoreless innings under his belt, BC pushed the lead to 3-0. Cody Morissette, who had a two-hit day, hit a leadoff triple to center field and scored a batter later on a sacrifice fly from Jack Cunningham. In the seventh, needing an insurance run against right-hander Brian Rodriguez, Leary drew another walk. He moved to second on a wild pitch, to third on a Dante Baldelli single, and scored on a Brian Dempsey groundout.
The Eagles again had an answer in the top of the ninth after Vetrano gave up a run to make it a one-run game. Leary, who reached base three times, hit a leadoff triple to left-center and scored on a sacrifice fly from the next batter, Peter Burns.
Ultimately, it was a well-fought midweek rivalry game that pushed BC back above .500 on the season. After some tough weekends in conference play, the Eagles need to take care of business in midweek matchups, and they were able to do so on the road on Tuesday.
Up Next
The Eagles are back in action at home this weekend against North Carolina State. BC has dropped five of six home ACC games while the Wolfpack (11-11, 5-10) has had similar conference struggles. N.C. State swept UNC two weeks ago, but dropped two of three to Clemson this past weekend.
Featured Image Courtesy of BC Athletics