A five-run third inning doomed Boston College on Sunday at the NCAA Division 1 baseball tournament, and the Eagles’ season ended with a second loss to Liberty in three days in Athens, Ga., this one 8-3.
The third seed in the four-team double elimination regional, the Flames (43-20) advanced to face unbeaten regional host Georgia later Sunday. Liberty would need to beat the Bulldogs, seeded third in the tournament overall, twice to advance to next weekend’s super regionals.
Boston College (37-23) led, 2-0, after single runs in the first two innings when the walls fell in on Harwich’s Brady Miller, who’d fanned four of the first six hitters he faced to that point. After a throwing error, a hit batter, and a walk loaded the bases with one out, Liberty scored five times via four hits, including a Nick Barone double and Jordan Jaffe triple.
Jaffe hit a solo homer in the fifth to make it 7-2. That was the last inning for Miller, the Belmont Hill product allowing five earned runs, six hits, and a walk against nine strikeouts.
Sophomore Ty Mainolfi knocked in two of BC’s runs, with a solo homer on the seventh pitch of the game and an RBI single with two out in the ninth.
The Eagles’ 37 victories tied the program record for a season, matching 2005 and 2023. The latter also was their last time reaching the NCAAs.
Northeastern battles, but bumped
Northeastern put the potential winning run on base during a furious ninth-inning rally, but nationally ranked Arkansas closed out the Huskies for Sunday and the season, 10-9, in Lawrence, Kan.
The Razorbacks (41-21), who squandered an early 4-1 lead and nearly a 10-6 advantage in the ninth, advanced to play unbeaten regional host Kansas later Sunday.
The Huskies’ AJ Aschettino had his second straight multi-hit game, the freshman’s 3-for-3 day highlighted by a two-run homer that made it 8-6 in the seventh. Sophomores Will Fosberg (Natick) and Henry DiGiorgio (Franklin) also knocked in two each, Fosberg as a pinch hitter via a full-count double that closed the gap to 10-8 with two down in the ninth.
DiGiorgio scored Fosberg with a single, then reached second as the tying run, but Tyler Harmony flew out to end the game.
Mike Glavine’s Huskies (39-22) won the CAA tournament championship for the second straight season, and reached the NCAAs for the fourth time in the last six years.
