"The stuff is real stuff": Sheehan takes step forward in start against Fairfield
The sophomore went seven strong, showing for the first time why he earned the Sunday starter role. Plus, lineup notes and quotes on Clemson.
During the first two weeks, Boston College head coach Mike Gambino preached patience with sophomore righthander Emmet Sheehan, citing the fact that he had full faith in the youthful pitcher to find his composure on the mound. Sheehan entered Sunday’s start against Fairfield having issued 11 walks across just 3 2/3 innings, but brushed those early struggles aside and was simply dominant against the Stags.
He retired the first 11 batters he faced and eventually went seven innings of one-run ball. The Darien, Conn., product struck out eight and didn’t issue a walk while scattering five hits. Yes, it was against a winless Fairfield team that is hitting just .182 and scoring two runs a game, but it was still a stepping stone for Sheehan.
“When we made that decision to start him on Sundays, we knew that there was going to be some growing pains along the way,” Gambino said. “The thing about what he did on Sunday was that it could’ve been Arizona State’s lineup—it could’ve been against anybody’s lineup.”
Sheehan filled the strike zone against Fairfield, needing 89 pitches—60 of which were strikes—to go seven innings. He worked a 12-pitch first inning, an 11-pitch second, and an 11-pitch third. In his seventh, and final inning of work, he got a flyout followed by back-to-back strikeouts to close his book. Sheehan has had the potential to do this for a while—he has a plus pitch mix that features a fastball in the mid-90s, a slider, a curveball, and a changeup—it’s just been a matter of finding control.
First three career starts: 4 IP, 7 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 13 BB, 4 K
Against Fairfield: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K
Out of high school, Sheehan pitched in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League with the Bristol Blues. In 31 2/3 innings, the BC commit struck out 39 and walked 24. In his first year with the Eagles, he struck out 20 but walked 21 in 14 innings of work. Then, last summer, with the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s Danbury Westerners, Sheehan totaled 28 1/3 innings and struck out an impressive 48 while walking 23. The high strikeout and walk numbers reflect a pitcher with promising stuff but struggling to control it—as you’d expect with a young prospect.
“The stuff is real stuff and we forget that these are kids and they’re learning and growing,” Gambino said. “Emmet had one start as a freshman, two starts this year—and they were not good starts, I’m not making excuses for him—but that’s part of the process.”
“It’s one of those things that we believe we do well here is developing young players. We’ve seen that across the board with guys who maybe aren’t ready to do it right away but end up having good careers—Emmet is one of those guys. Maybe he wasn’t ready as a freshman but we continued to grow and develop him.”
Sheehan will need to bring his best stuff on Sunday (1 p.m., ACC Network Extra) when he gets the nod against Clemson. While the Tigers have got off to a shaky start offensively, they still boast the reigning ACC Hitter of the Week (Kier Meredith), a pair of top ACC 2020 draft prospects (Sam Hall and Bryce Teodosio), and two more for 2021 (Adam Hackenberg and two-way player Davis Sharpe). Time will tell if he can harness his ability in the same way he did against Fairfield
“The big thing for him is the learning, the growing, the consistency,” Gambino added. “We’ve spent a lot of time on that the last couple of weeks.”
Rotating Seventh Spot
I touched on this over the weekend, but Ramon Jimenez earned three starts at designated hitter and hit seventh in the Eagles lineup against Fairfield and North Carolina A&T. This came after Barry Walsh started on Friday night, and Lucas Stalman and Vince Cimini had split the previous four games.
Through 11 games: Stalman (5), Jimenez (3), Cimini (2), Walsh (1)
It’s the only lineup spot that has been changing for Gambino, and he expects it to stay that way. Stalman had the nod in the first week, but struggled at the plate out of the gate and made room for others to emerge. Jimenez had a double and scored a pair of runs in the blowout win on Saturday, so the Eagles didn’t want to shake anything up the next day. They kept the lineup the same and Jimenez rewarded them with a 2-for-4 day, adding an RBI and a run.
“We always talk about the lineup as a staff, and Sunday morning they looked at me and said, we scored 20 runs we can’t change the lineup,” Gambino said with a chuckle. “Monday morning, they said, we scored 20 runs we can’t change the lineup. We just kind of kept rolling with it.”
Jimenez is a career .217 hitter (69 at bats) with five doubles, five RBIs, and eight runs scored.
Clemson’s Pitching Staff
The Tigers have not one but three top-end pitchers in their weekend rotation. There’s Friday night starter Sam Weatherly (0.53 ERA, 17.5 K/9), Saturday’s Davis Sharpe (2.51 ERA, 5.1 K/BB), and Sunday’s Spencer Strider (9.2 IP, 14 K, 1.86 ERA). Then, Clemson also boasts a balanced bullpen with one of the nation’s premier closers in Carson Spiers (four saves).
“We’re going to see Weatherly on Friday night and he’s a premier, front-line ace-type kid,” Gambino said. “We’re excited because we think we have one of those too in Mason Pelio. I think Friday night is going to be a lot of fun.”
Clemson is coming off a tough midweek game against the College of Charleston, where they fell 11-2. The Tigers were fresh off of a big series win over South Carolina—and had started the year 7-0—but went quiet against the Cougars. This is a big weekend series for both teams, as it always is in the ACC.
“It’s going to be hard to score runs this weekend, but it’s hard any weekend in the ACC,” Gambino said. “They’ve got really good arms, we’ve got a good group of guys that can do damage in our lineup. It’s going to be a fun matchup.”
Images Courtesy of BC Athletics