BOSTON – No. 23 Boston College Baseball (25-12, 10-7 ACC) defeated Virginia Tech (16-17, 7-10 ACC) in the 14th Annual ALS Awareness, 8-7 at Fenway Park.
Brady Miller started for the Eagles and went six innings with six strikeouts while allowing four earned runs. Sean Hard replaced Miller and got one out in the seventh with a strikeout. John Kwiatkowski came on after Hard and went two innings with three strikeouts while allowing a pair of earned runs. Gavin Soares came on for the final two outs to earn his second save of the season.
The Hokies scored the game’s first run in the top of the first when they got on base with a two-out triple. The runner from third came in to score on a single to left field.
Virginia Tech doubled its lead in the second with a double off the left field wall, which scored a runner from second. They added two more on a home run to right field.
In the bottom of the fourth, Boston College would tie the game at four. Jack Toomey would double before being advanced to third on a double by Carter Hendrickson. Luke Gallo would be hit by a pitch, which would load the bases for the Eagles. Gunnar Johnson would clear the bases and cut the deficit to 4-3 with a double into right-center field. Johnson would then immediately score when Danny Surowiec singled to left-center field.
The Eagles took the lead in the following inning when they would load the bases once again for Johnson, who would hit a sacrifice fly to right field, which scored Toomey from third.
The Hokies tied the game up in the top of the seventh when a runner would score from third on a wild pitch.
Boston College put up three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to take an 8-5 lead. They loaded the bases off of singles from Ty Mainolfi and Nick Wang, as well as a pitch, which hit Hendrickson. Gallo would then single to shallow center field to score Mainolfi and restore the Eagles’ lead. Johnson would be hit by a pitch as well, which brought Wang in from third. Kyle Wolff would bring in the final run of the inning with a sacrifice fly to right field, which scored Gallo.
Virginia Tech would score two more in the top of the eighth inning when the Hokies’ second triple of the afternoon would bring in runners from first and second.
The Hokies threatened to score in the top of the ninth as they put runners on second and third. Soares came on and struck out a batter, and Johnson threw down to third and caught the runner to end the game.
Up Next: The Eagles will return to action tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. for the finale of their series with Virginia Tech, which will be streamed live on ACCNX.
