Boston College Baseball played a doubleheader on Sunday in Spartanburg, South Carolina, securing a win against Cornell before falling to Northwestern.
In the first game of the day, Boston College defeated Cornell 7-6. Tyler Mudd started for the Eagles and pitched six innings, allowing two hits and striking out five batters. Chase Hartsell and John Kwiatkowski finished the game in relief, with Hartsell earning the win and Kwiatkowski recording a save.
Offensively, Ty Mainolfi opened scoring for Boston College with a two-out single in the first inning. Jack Toomey followed up with his second triple of the weekend to give the Eagles an early lead. Mudd retired seven straight batters before Cornell took their first lead in the fourth inning by scoring twice.
Boston College tied it at 2-2 when Kyle Wolff grounded out to bring home Mainolfi again. In the fifth inning, after Colin Larson was hit by a pitch and Cesar Gonzalez singled, Sean Martinez moved both runners with a sacrifice bunt. A balk allowed Larson to score, and Julio Solier’s flyout brought home Gonzalez for a 4-2 advantage.
Cornell tied the game at four with a two-run homer in the eighth inning. In response, Toomey singled and advanced on an error before Gunnar Johnson came off the bench as a pinch hitter to deliver a three-run home run, giving Boston College a 7-4 lead. Cornell added two more runs in their final turn at bat but could not overtake Boston College.
In their afternoon matchup against Northwestern, Drew Grumbles started for Boston College and pitched three innings before Jacob Burnham entered from the bullpen for four innings. The Eagles used six pitchers throughout this contest.
Mainolfi reached base on an error to start things off and scored following another miscue from Northwestern’s defense. The Wildcats evened things up after capitalizing on an error by Boston College late in their half of that inning.
Boston College regained control briefly when Mainolfi drove in two runs during the fifth inning after singles from Martinez and Solier set up runners on base. However, Northwestern surged ahead by scoring seven runs in the eighth inning.
The Eagles narrowed that deficit when Solier drove in Ben Williams during their next at-bat. In their last opportunity at bat, Toomey hit his second home run of the season but Boston College could not complete a comeback as they fell 8-5 to Northwestern.
Boston College is scheduled to play Florida Gulf Coast University next Friday evening in Fort Myers, Florida.
