Boston College
West Virginia
Baseball Sweeps Twinbill From West Virginia
May 16, 2003 | Baseball
May 16, 2003
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - With their postseason lives hanging in the balance, Boston College played 16 innings of inspired baseball, taking both ends of a doubleheader from West Virginia, 5-4 and 7-3, on Friday, May 16 at Shea Field.
With the two wins, Boston College improves to 33-20 over all and 13-10 in the BIG EAST. At the time of this release, Notre Dame had beaten Virginia Tech, 12-4, in the first game of a doubleheader and was trailing the Hokies, 9-5, in the fourth inning of the second game.
If Boston College wins tomorrow's game against the Mountaineers (34-17, 17-6 BE), which is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., and Virginia Tech loses one of its next two games to the Fighting Irish, the Eagles earn the fourth and final spot in next weekend's BIG EAST Championships.
If Boston College loses tomorrow, it needs Virginia Tech to get swept by Notre Dame and Pittsburgh to win no more than two out of three games versus Connecticut this weekend to qualify for the tournament.
In the first game, sophomore third baseman Tom Mackor's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth, which at the time made the score 5-3, proved to be the gamewinner.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the seventh, sophomore starting pitcher Chris Lambert (Manchester, N.H.) uncorked a wild pitch, allowing the fourth West Virginia run to score and putting runners on second and third. Lambert then got right fielder Lee Fritz to ground to short to end the game.
The Mountainners took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. The first run scored on an Eagle throwing error and the second one came around on third baseman Tim McCabe's RBI groundout.
Boston College retaliated with three runs in the bottom of the frame. Sophomore right fielder Drew Locke (Weymouth, Mass.) drove in junior second baseman Josh DiScipio (Schenectady, N.Y.) with a double down the left-field line. Three batters later, senior centerfielder Matt Lederhos (Westwood, Mass.) powered a two-run double to the right-centerfield gap, giving the Eagles a 3-2 advantage.
In the third, sophomore first baseman Ryan Morgan (Weymouth, Mass.) lined a one-out triple to center and scored on a groundout by sophomore leftfielder Jason Delaney (Hanson, Mass.).
First baseman Kurtis Clinton's RBI single to center in top of the sixth tied the game at 4-4.
Lambert won his fourth straight BIG EAST game and tossed his seventh consecutive complete game. He gave up four runs (three earned) on five hits while striking out seven and walking three. His season strikeout total of 88 is the third most in school history.
Morgan went 2-for-3 with two runs scored in the first game, and the momentum carried over to game two, as his three-run homer off the scoreboard in right in the seventh inning gave the Eagles a 7-3 cushion.
Boston College scored single runs in each of the first four innings. Morgan and Locke had RBI groundouts in the first and third, respectively, and senior designated hitter Vinny Scavone (Seffner, Fla.) and junior catcher Garrett Greer (Peabody, Mass.) hit sac flies in the second and fourth, respectively.
The Mountaineers tried to keep pace, plating one in the second and two in the third. Designated hitter Derek Cisar's sac fly to left brought in West Virginia's first run, while a McCabe RBI single and a BC fielding error accounted for its two third-inning runs.
That was all the Mountaineers would get as sophomore starter Kevin Shepard (Andover, Mass.), junior Mike Gauthier (Salem, Mass.) and senior Matt Elfeldt (Delmar, N.Y.) combined to shut them out over the next six innings. West Virginia did not help itself as it left 11 men on base in the game.
Shepard gave up three runs (two earned) on eight hits in 5.1 innings to go to 8-3 on the year.
Morgan drove in four runs while DiScipio went 2-for-4 and crossed the plate twice.
Tomorrow also is Senior Day. Boston College will recognize its five seniors -- Elfeldt, Scavone, Lederhos, Matthew Duffey (San Antonio, Texas) and student manager John Reid -- in a pre-game ceremony.
