The Birdball Construction Company

When he took over as head coach of the Boston College baseball program, Mike Gambino received advice. In his first stint as a college baseball head coach, it was a homecoming, a return to where he previously played and served as assistant coach. As he prepared to get started, someone close to him gave him some advice.

Don't build a team. Build a program.

BC had built teams before, evidenced by its 2009 trip to the NCAA Tournament. But the intention of coming back to Chestnut Hill had nothing to do with just one trip to the dance. It was about building an infrastructure capable of taking on the nation's elite year after year, making success sustainable at a place where people didn't believe it could be done.

It took a steady hand and commitment to growth, even though darker days were ahead. It took patience and a commitment to the construction project, with the hope of the future. Owing to college baseball's long-term recruiting cycle, it would take six years to achieve a full roster of "his players," but there was trust that hope could become reality.

That's exactly what happened in 2016. After the program's best-ever 8-0 start, the Eagles finished the regular season with a 31-19 record. Their 13-15 record in ACC play placed them eighth, earning a trip to the conference tournament, the first of the Gambino era. On NCAA Selection Day, BC heard its name called for the first time in seven years, seeded third in the Oxford, Miss., Regional.

Playing at Ole Miss, everything came together. BC won three straight games, sweeping the entire bracket for its first regional win since their 1967 trip to the College World Series, a time when the NCAA Tournament format radically differed. Playing in their first-ever Super Regional at No. 2 national seed Miami, the Eagles fought in three bitterly-contested games, pushing the host Hurricanes as far to the limit as possible.

For BC, it was the breakthrough of the construction program, the shattering of the proverbial glass ceiling holding them down in the nation's best conference. More importantly, it was the culmination of the years spent building from year to year, the intention of putting together a program made up of teams that can compete on an annual basis.

"We talk a lot about the difference between the team and the program," Gambino said. "There's a lot of individual teams that make up this great program. So last year's team did a lot to move this program forward, and we talk a lot about how everything we did last year is replicable. We thought we had a really good team (in 2015), and we thought we had a really good team going into (2016). We think we have a really good team this year.

"The things we did well last year are the things we can continue to do," he continued. "Does that means we're always going to be one game away from Omaha? I hope so. But we believe that every year moving forward, we can have a legitimate chance to go to Omaha."

"It's a long season - 56 games," senior captain Johnny Adams said. "We had a hot streak at the beginning, got a little colder in the middle, then got hot at the end and started stringing together wins. We had a great group of guys, and I still get chills thinking about the success that we had last year. But now we're hoping to build off that success for this year."

But the point of building success wasn't just to build a winning team, and the construction of the Birdball roster traveled deeper than just wins and losses. Last year's baseball team captured the hearts and minds of all fans, not just those who support Boston College. The team brought forward a group of players who gave everything for the person next to them.

The building of "the program" came from bringing in players who were good athletes capable of feeding off one another. It was a game built on chemistry, where one player did something to set up his next teammate. In an era where athletes are bigger, stronger and faster than ever, it was a different approach where the individual parts fed off one another and got better as opposed to relying on raw talent. In that sense, it's fun to celebrate what was but it's also important to set things up for future success.

"It definitely took a couple of weeks to settle in after we got eliminated," junior captain Bobby Skogsbergh said. "For me personally, I went right to summer ball, so it was a different environment after playing in a deciding game of a Super Regional. After a couple of weeks, it kicked in and you start to reflect that it was an amazing ride. But at the same time, in our minds, we came up one game short. So that's our focus. We talk about last year, how successful it was, but we also want to complete our end goal (as a program), which is a trip to Omaha."

As a team, how they remain consistent isn't so much as important as the fact that they remain consistent. Birdball backed up a .268 batting average in 2015 with a .264 team average last season. Their on-base percentages are nearly identical after achieving a .355 mark in 2015 and a .356 mark in 2016. That's nearly 70 percentage points where they were when the team began forming back in 2013.

Where the offense was consistent, the pitching took continued its jump from the year prior. In 2015, the strikeouts-to-walks ratio jumped from 1.49 to 2.35, then remained around the 2:1 margin this year. Opponents' batting average, which was .292 in 2013 and dropped to .255 by 2015, fell again to .245.

It was the result of chemistry coming together for players who learned how to play together. Though right-hander Justin Dunn was overpowering, the rest of the team showed what happens when synergy happens. Strong defense helped improve the pitching, generating more confidence that, in turn, helped the defense. With timely offense, it was as if the players knew exactly what to do at the right time.

As a result, the lines blurred between teammate and family. When they clinched the ACC Tournament, they celebrated together. When they made the NCAA Tournament, they did so together. When they won their regional, they celebrated as one. And when the New York Mets drafted Dunn 19th overall in this past year's MLB Entry Draft, everyone was drafted with him.

"That video of Justin being drafted is one of my all-time favorite things in the program," Gambino said. "Justin had his name called in the first round. It's what every one of us playing baseball since we were four hoped for. But if you watch that video, there's a point where you don't know who was actually drafted because everyone was going so nuts. It looked like it happened to everybody and that's who we are. That's the culture and the brotherhood that's the mortar that holds us together."

When the baseball team was honored at the BC football game against Louisville on Nov. 5, complete with many of the graduated and drafted players coming back to join in the festivities, it was the final chapter of last year's success. But it's not the end. It's only the beginning, as baseball continues its quest to build the program on the backs of another successful team.

Boston College Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Johnny Adams

Justin Dunn

Bobby Skogsbergh

Related Videos