Boston College Athletics
Boston College
BIG EAST Tourney (Notre Dame)
Baseball Edged by #7 Notre Dame, 3-2
May 27, 2004 | Baseball
May 27, 2004
The Boston College baseball team gave up the game-deciding tally in the bottom of the ninth to lose the first round of the BIG EAST Tournament, 3-2, to #7 Notre Dame (47-10) in Bridgewater, N.J.
On Friday, May 28 at 12 noon, fourth-seeded BC (30-26) will play third-seeded Pittsburgh in an elimination-round contest.
The Eagles battled from the start with their leadoff batter Eric Wright (Southboro, Mass.) forcing ND starter Grant Johnson to throw nine pitches before launching a single to left center. Wright came around to score after a stolen base and Ryan Leahy's (Salem, Mass.) RBI single. The Eagles tacked on a second run in the third when Drew Locke (Weymouth, Mass.) drove in Marco Albano (Arlington, Mass.), who reached on a two-base error and moved up on Eric Wright's sacrifice bunt.
BC's Chris Lambert (Manchester, N.H.) kept ND scoreless until the fifth inning. He retired 10 of his first 14 batters and after surrendering two unearned runs in the fifth, sat down his next 10 batters. For the game, he allowed no earned runs, two hits and struck out eight in 8.0 innings of work.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth, Notre Dame knotted the score at two when second baseman Josh DiScipio's (Schenectady, N.Y.) made an errant throw to first that would have ended the inning, allowing two runs to score.
In the bottom of the ninth, Notre Dame loaded the bases off reliever Mike Gauthier (Salem, Mass.) on a hit batsmen, single and intentional walk, which drew the infield in but Matt Edwards' jammed a single to shallow left field to knock in the game-winning run.
Dan Kapala, Notre Dame's third pitcher, picked up the win, striking out the only two batters that he saw. Grant Johnson equalled Lambert's extraordinary pitching performance, surrendering only five hits in 7.0 innings with six strikeouts and one walk.
