Touching 'Em All: Week Six
March 29, 2019 | Baseball, #ForBoston Files
BC remains in the thick of the ACC playoff race after last week's win over Clemson.
There is no name more synonymous with college baseball than Mike Martin. He's the all-time winningest coach in the sport's history and is the only Division I coach to ever eclipse 2,000 wins. His 40 years at the top step of the Florida State dugout make him an institution, a walking and breathing piece of baseball history.
Coach Martin's journey at Florida State made the Seminoles one of the premier baseball schools in the nation. FSU's 40 wins in 41 consecutive seasons is nearly six times longer than any other active streak in the nation, advancing to the College World Series 16 times under his tutelage. He coaches at his alma mater, making "11" an institution unto himself.
This is Martin's 40th season as head coach in Tallahassee, but it is, officially, his last after he retires at the season's end. It marks the end of an era, and this weekend, Boston College will head to the Panhandle to play its last series against "his teams" on the field bearing his name.
"I'm extremely lucky that he's been really good to me since I started coaching here," Boston College head coach Mike Gambino said. "I have a real affection for Coach Martin. Take out the 2,000 wins, and I respect him. It's what he's done and how he's treated me. It's hard not to take a step back and be in awe by coaching against a legend like that."
Boston College moved to the ACC for baseball in 2005, but it was probably Florida State's final trip to the Commonwealth that will be the most memorable. The Seminoles played in last year's ALS Awareness Game, which was moved off-campus from Chestnut Hill to Fenway Park. On a sun-soaked day in Boston, Coach Martin stalked to the plate at baseball's holiest cathedral and offered words to Pete Frates and his family in an emotional scene. After the game, he talked about Pete with a special twinkle and sparkle in his eye, the moment not lost on a man who has never missed the NCAA Tournament.
"I have a picture of my son with Coach Martin at Fenway Park last year," Gambino said. "I said at the time that my son is too young (to know about it), but when he gets older, I can show him that picture and that's going to be really cool."
This weekend, BC heads to Florida State for a key ACC baseball series in the Atlantic Division. The Eagles continue to tread water, taking a game from Clemson this past weekend, but sit two games behind a three-way tie between Notre Dame, Wake Forest and FSU. Those three teams, all 5-4, are behind NC State, Clemson and Louisville but have equivalent records to the top of the Coastal Division, where three teams are either 3-6 or worse.
It means BC is right in the thick of the race for the conference tournament. The top 12 teams advance, regardless of division, and BC is tied directly with Miami and Duke, two games ahead of Pitt. Every game is like a playoff game at this point as the season continues to churn forward.
It won't take a backseat, but there's the overarching shadow of the last series against a true lion of the game. This is what baseball is supposed to be - two teams battling for position while celebrating a life spent building a career as a legend.
"I was really excited that the ALS game last year at Fenway Park ended up against Florida State," Gambino said. "It was the idea of (Coach Martin) coaching at that ballpark. Now I get to coach against him at his park in his last season."
Here's a look back at the weekend that was against Clemson, with some added flavor from the midweek game against Connecticut:
*****
First Base: Closer Than You Think
BC lost two of its three games against the Tigers this past weekend, but it was dangerously close to shifting more towards the Eagles. Clemson's three-run inning against Dan Metzdorf almost didn't materialize, and the game's entire landscape would have changed if Sal Frelick could have tracked down James Parker's two-RBI double.
"Danny threw the ball much better than his line (indicated)," Gambino said. "Sal Frelick was close to catching that ball that dropped (in the third inning), and if he catches it, then everything changes."
It was the lone blemish on Metzdorf, who was otherwise sensational through seven innings. He threw 110 pitches, striking out six and walking three. He retired the side in the first, fourth and seventh innings, inducing eight groundouts. He shutout the Tigers in five of his completed innings, allowing a single run in the sixth, and was well below the century mark pitching before he ran into trouble in the eighth.
It was a similar story on Saturday, when BC's pitching staff settled in after Matt Gill gave up five runs in just over two innings thrown thanks to a triple and an inside-the-park home run in the first two innings. But Joey Walsh and Travis Lane settled the staff down over the next six innings as the batting order nearly completed a comeback.
The Eagles cut a 5-0 lead to 5-2 by the end of the fourth, and they turned a 7-2 lead into a 7-4 deficit two innings later. The Tigers piled on two runs in the ninth, but BC still had a chance to tie game with the bases loaded against a bullpen that didn't think it would need Carson Spiers for his seventh save of the season.
"We were fighting and scrapping, and we had the tying run at the plate in the ninth," Gambino said. "So we were one hit away and one swing away from forcing extra innings. I knew if we could've gotten to Jake Alu, we were going to win that game, but Jake was left on deck. But at the same time, it would have been easy for us to go away - and we didn't."
So while the win on Sunday sticks out for a number of reasons, the first two games could have gone very differently if one or two innings changed dynamics. Those three plays - a fly ball dropping in, a triple or an inside-the-park home run - illustrate the razor thin margin of error in the ACC this season.
*****
Second Base: Sundays are for winning
The first two games set a tone into Sunday that created a real air of electricity at BC's new baseball facility. After the teams traded runs in the first inning, Gian Martellini hit his first bomb of the season in the second inning to stake the Eagles to a 2-1 lead. From there, Mason Pelio went to work on the mound, throwing 6.2 innings with eight strikeouts before allowing the bullpen to close out a 3-2 victory over the Tigers.
"That was a great baseball game on Sunday," Gambino said. "Clemson played great. We played great. We had a couple of opportunities to score that almost blew that game open, but there's also a reason why Clemson is a top-ranked team. We would've liked to have gotten two wins from them, but it was a weekend where we left feeling pretty good (about our team)."
Joey Walsh was particularly electric, striking out one and needing just 10 pitches to polish off the four batters he faced in the eighth and ninth for his second save of the season. It came a day after he threw almost 60 pitches in relief of Gill, but it's a game that wouldn't have happened if Metzdorf hadn't thrown over seven-strong two days prior.
"Here's the thing: without Danny Metzdorf's game, we don't win on Sunday," Gambino said. "He gave us seven innings on Friday and kept our bullpen intact. Beyond that, Metzdorf had pitched on Friday and Travis Lane threw 57 pitches on Saturday. They knew that we were without John Witkowski, so both of those guys came up to me and offered to pitch if we needed them. They put the team and winning so far above themselves. There's no scenario outside of Omaha (and the NCAA Tournament) where you do that, but they were talking about doing it because that shows how much they care about winning."
*****
Third Base: The Swiss Army Knife
There's whole articles that can be written about Jake Alu (and, to be fair, we've done just that in the past). He's an overlooked type of baseball player who lacks the natural types of tools that lights up baseball scouts, but he's the best kind of athlete because he will use every ounce of energy in his possession to do whatever is necessary. It's what makes him the very definition of "baseball player".
Alu smacked five hits against Clemson, driving in two runs and scoring one of his own over the course of the weekend. It drove his batting average up to .347, which had him in the top ten hitters in the league before the UConn game dropped him to .326. His 30 hits are tied for 21st in the ACC, and his stolen base numbers place him among some of the most opportunistic amongst his peers.
"Jake Alu is doing Jake Alu things," Gambino said. "He's swinging great, having great at-bats, running the bases, having the right bunt or a safety squeeze. He's moving runners with hit and runs. He's just a very good baseball player."
That's the type of player that sets Alu apart from others. Sal Frelick continues to mash at a nearly-.400 clip for the Eagles and is on a path to becoming an ACC superstar in maroon and gold. Alu, though, is the type of ballplayer who savors the little things and is one of the most valued members of the lineup. He's built very much in the same mold as Jake Palomaki or Blake Butera - players who were undervalued by scouts, but developed into ballplayers in the BC system.
"We love to recruit those types of players," Gambino said. "That's who we look for and develop. You hope to develop your players like that."
Alu is now a lynchpin of sorts in a lineup that's starting to formulate around him. There's star power in Frelick, and there are mashers in Jack Cunningham and Brian Dempsey. The young freshmen like Morissette are starting to already come into their own. There are still hiccups like the midweek loss to Connecticut, but BC is starting to formulate its roster and begin taking the steps towards potential postseason success.
"You're seeing the beginnings of a good lineup right now," Gambino said. "We're still waiting for the time when everyone is fully healthy, but to have this kind of depth, you can still be competitive while you miss other guys. When we're healthy, we're going to be really good. So now we have to stay in the playoff mix so when everyone is back, we can make a good playoff run."
*****
Heading Home: Florida State
The midweek loss to Connecticut hurts, but it's important to remember that the Huskies are the equivalent of a local powerhouse. Jim Penders' team carved out a niche in the Big East and American Athletic Conference where it can win between 35-40 games annually with 14-16 conference wins. That's the perfect setup for potential runs to the NCAA Tournament in a conference with some traditional baseball market pop in Houston, East Carolina and UCF.
The Eagles, meanwhile, continue their drive in the ACC against Florida State this weekend. The Seminoles are once again a competitor with a 17-7 record, but they've proven beatable at times. They needed three runs in the last three innings to walk off winners against North Florida and needed 10 innings to beat Virginia Tech before losing, 6-0.
FSU surrendered 36 runs in consecutive games to Florida and NC State, then lost to UCF and Notre Dame. The series against the Fighting Irish, played last weekend, was particularly telling because it involved an extra-inning win after a 12-3 loss. During the midweek this week, a 4-2 loss to Florida swept the season series for the Gators and drove FSU to 3-3 in its last six games.
Still, there's talent galore on the roster. Robby Martin and Mike Salvatore are both hitting well over .300, and Drew Parrish has 41 strikeouts across 32 innings on the hill. JC Flowers has been lights out in the back end, saving six games without a run allowed in eight appearances. Shane Drohan, a sophomore left-handed pitcher, is the heir apparent to Parrish, a southpaw, with a 2-0 record and a 2.11 ERA, but he's walked 24 batters to his 32 strikeouts in 21.1 innings pitched.
*****
Extra Innings: Beanpot
The FSU series is arguably more important to the season's long run, but the Eagles will return home to start their midyear tradition at the Harrington Athletics Village with Tuesday's Beanpot first round game against UMass. The Minutemen, who haven't won since a March 10 victory over Texas-Rio Grande Valley, have struggled for victories but nearly upset Northeastern last season in a 10-8 defeat.
The Beanpot is one of baseball's hidden gems, and this season marks a return to Fenway Park for the championship round. Last season, Harvard defeated the Eagles in the first round in 11 innings, 7-4, ending BC's championship streak at three years. In last year's consolation round, BC laid a 9-2 victory on the Minutemen in the teams' first second round meeting since the 2015 championship.
Coach Martin's journey at Florida State made the Seminoles one of the premier baseball schools in the nation. FSU's 40 wins in 41 consecutive seasons is nearly six times longer than any other active streak in the nation, advancing to the College World Series 16 times under his tutelage. He coaches at his alma mater, making "11" an institution unto himself.
This is Martin's 40th season as head coach in Tallahassee, but it is, officially, his last after he retires at the season's end. It marks the end of an era, and this weekend, Boston College will head to the Panhandle to play its last series against "his teams" on the field bearing his name.
"I'm extremely lucky that he's been really good to me since I started coaching here," Boston College head coach Mike Gambino said. "I have a real affection for Coach Martin. Take out the 2,000 wins, and I respect him. It's what he's done and how he's treated me. It's hard not to take a step back and be in awe by coaching against a legend like that."
Boston College moved to the ACC for baseball in 2005, but it was probably Florida State's final trip to the Commonwealth that will be the most memorable. The Seminoles played in last year's ALS Awareness Game, which was moved off-campus from Chestnut Hill to Fenway Park. On a sun-soaked day in Boston, Coach Martin stalked to the plate at baseball's holiest cathedral and offered words to Pete Frates and his family in an emotional scene. After the game, he talked about Pete with a special twinkle and sparkle in his eye, the moment not lost on a man who has never missed the NCAA Tournament.
"I have a picture of my son with Coach Martin at Fenway Park last year," Gambino said. "I said at the time that my son is too young (to know about it), but when he gets older, I can show him that picture and that's going to be really cool."
This weekend, BC heads to Florida State for a key ACC baseball series in the Atlantic Division. The Eagles continue to tread water, taking a game from Clemson this past weekend, but sit two games behind a three-way tie between Notre Dame, Wake Forest and FSU. Those three teams, all 5-4, are behind NC State, Clemson and Louisville but have equivalent records to the top of the Coastal Division, where three teams are either 3-6 or worse.
It means BC is right in the thick of the race for the conference tournament. The top 12 teams advance, regardless of division, and BC is tied directly with Miami and Duke, two games ahead of Pitt. Every game is like a playoff game at this point as the season continues to churn forward.
It won't take a backseat, but there's the overarching shadow of the last series against a true lion of the game. This is what baseball is supposed to be - two teams battling for position while celebrating a life spent building a career as a legend.
"I was really excited that the ALS game last year at Fenway Park ended up against Florida State," Gambino said. "It was the idea of (Coach Martin) coaching at that ballpark. Now I get to coach against him at his park in his last season."
Here's a look back at the weekend that was against Clemson, with some added flavor from the midweek game against Connecticut:
*****
First Base: Closer Than You Think
BC lost two of its three games against the Tigers this past weekend, but it was dangerously close to shifting more towards the Eagles. Clemson's three-run inning against Dan Metzdorf almost didn't materialize, and the game's entire landscape would have changed if Sal Frelick could have tracked down James Parker's two-RBI double.
"Danny threw the ball much better than his line (indicated)," Gambino said. "Sal Frelick was close to catching that ball that dropped (in the third inning), and if he catches it, then everything changes."
It was the lone blemish on Metzdorf, who was otherwise sensational through seven innings. He threw 110 pitches, striking out six and walking three. He retired the side in the first, fourth and seventh innings, inducing eight groundouts. He shutout the Tigers in five of his completed innings, allowing a single run in the sixth, and was well below the century mark pitching before he ran into trouble in the eighth.
It was a similar story on Saturday, when BC's pitching staff settled in after Matt Gill gave up five runs in just over two innings thrown thanks to a triple and an inside-the-park home run in the first two innings. But Joey Walsh and Travis Lane settled the staff down over the next six innings as the batting order nearly completed a comeback.
The Eagles cut a 5-0 lead to 5-2 by the end of the fourth, and they turned a 7-2 lead into a 7-4 deficit two innings later. The Tigers piled on two runs in the ninth, but BC still had a chance to tie game with the bases loaded against a bullpen that didn't think it would need Carson Spiers for his seventh save of the season.
"We were fighting and scrapping, and we had the tying run at the plate in the ninth," Gambino said. "So we were one hit away and one swing away from forcing extra innings. I knew if we could've gotten to Jake Alu, we were going to win that game, but Jake was left on deck. But at the same time, it would have been easy for us to go away - and we didn't."
So while the win on Sunday sticks out for a number of reasons, the first two games could have gone very differently if one or two innings changed dynamics. Those three plays - a fly ball dropping in, a triple or an inside-the-park home run - illustrate the razor thin margin of error in the ACC this season.
*****
Second Base: Sundays are for winning
The first two games set a tone into Sunday that created a real air of electricity at BC's new baseball facility. After the teams traded runs in the first inning, Gian Martellini hit his first bomb of the season in the second inning to stake the Eagles to a 2-1 lead. From there, Mason Pelio went to work on the mound, throwing 6.2 innings with eight strikeouts before allowing the bullpen to close out a 3-2 victory over the Tigers.
"That was a great baseball game on Sunday," Gambino said. "Clemson played great. We played great. We had a couple of opportunities to score that almost blew that game open, but there's also a reason why Clemson is a top-ranked team. We would've liked to have gotten two wins from them, but it was a weekend where we left feeling pretty good (about our team)."
Joey Walsh was particularly electric, striking out one and needing just 10 pitches to polish off the four batters he faced in the eighth and ninth for his second save of the season. It came a day after he threw almost 60 pitches in relief of Gill, but it's a game that wouldn't have happened if Metzdorf hadn't thrown over seven-strong two days prior.
"Here's the thing: without Danny Metzdorf's game, we don't win on Sunday," Gambino said. "He gave us seven innings on Friday and kept our bullpen intact. Beyond that, Metzdorf had pitched on Friday and Travis Lane threw 57 pitches on Saturday. They knew that we were without John Witkowski, so both of those guys came up to me and offered to pitch if we needed them. They put the team and winning so far above themselves. There's no scenario outside of Omaha (and the NCAA Tournament) where you do that, but they were talking about doing it because that shows how much they care about winning."
*****
Third Base: The Swiss Army Knife
There's whole articles that can be written about Jake Alu (and, to be fair, we've done just that in the past). He's an overlooked type of baseball player who lacks the natural types of tools that lights up baseball scouts, but he's the best kind of athlete because he will use every ounce of energy in his possession to do whatever is necessary. It's what makes him the very definition of "baseball player".
Alu smacked five hits against Clemson, driving in two runs and scoring one of his own over the course of the weekend. It drove his batting average up to .347, which had him in the top ten hitters in the league before the UConn game dropped him to .326. His 30 hits are tied for 21st in the ACC, and his stolen base numbers place him among some of the most opportunistic amongst his peers.
"Jake Alu is doing Jake Alu things," Gambino said. "He's swinging great, having great at-bats, running the bases, having the right bunt or a safety squeeze. He's moving runners with hit and runs. He's just a very good baseball player."
That's the type of player that sets Alu apart from others. Sal Frelick continues to mash at a nearly-.400 clip for the Eagles and is on a path to becoming an ACC superstar in maroon and gold. Alu, though, is the type of ballplayer who savors the little things and is one of the most valued members of the lineup. He's built very much in the same mold as Jake Palomaki or Blake Butera - players who were undervalued by scouts, but developed into ballplayers in the BC system.
"We love to recruit those types of players," Gambino said. "That's who we look for and develop. You hope to develop your players like that."
Alu is now a lynchpin of sorts in a lineup that's starting to formulate around him. There's star power in Frelick, and there are mashers in Jack Cunningham and Brian Dempsey. The young freshmen like Morissette are starting to already come into their own. There are still hiccups like the midweek loss to Connecticut, but BC is starting to formulate its roster and begin taking the steps towards potential postseason success.
"You're seeing the beginnings of a good lineup right now," Gambino said. "We're still waiting for the time when everyone is fully healthy, but to have this kind of depth, you can still be competitive while you miss other guys. When we're healthy, we're going to be really good. So now we have to stay in the playoff mix so when everyone is back, we can make a good playoff run."
*****
Heading Home: Florida State
The midweek loss to Connecticut hurts, but it's important to remember that the Huskies are the equivalent of a local powerhouse. Jim Penders' team carved out a niche in the Big East and American Athletic Conference where it can win between 35-40 games annually with 14-16 conference wins. That's the perfect setup for potential runs to the NCAA Tournament in a conference with some traditional baseball market pop in Houston, East Carolina and UCF.
The Eagles, meanwhile, continue their drive in the ACC against Florida State this weekend. The Seminoles are once again a competitor with a 17-7 record, but they've proven beatable at times. They needed three runs in the last three innings to walk off winners against North Florida and needed 10 innings to beat Virginia Tech before losing, 6-0.
FSU surrendered 36 runs in consecutive games to Florida and NC State, then lost to UCF and Notre Dame. The series against the Fighting Irish, played last weekend, was particularly telling because it involved an extra-inning win after a 12-3 loss. During the midweek this week, a 4-2 loss to Florida swept the season series for the Gators and drove FSU to 3-3 in its last six games.
Still, there's talent galore on the roster. Robby Martin and Mike Salvatore are both hitting well over .300, and Drew Parrish has 41 strikeouts across 32 innings on the hill. JC Flowers has been lights out in the back end, saving six games without a run allowed in eight appearances. Shane Drohan, a sophomore left-handed pitcher, is the heir apparent to Parrish, a southpaw, with a 2-0 record and a 2.11 ERA, but he's walked 24 batters to his 32 strikeouts in 21.1 innings pitched.
*****
Extra Innings: Beanpot
The FSU series is arguably more important to the season's long run, but the Eagles will return home to start their midyear tradition at the Harrington Athletics Village with Tuesday's Beanpot first round game against UMass. The Minutemen, who haven't won since a March 10 victory over Texas-Rio Grande Valley, have struggled for victories but nearly upset Northeastern last season in a 10-8 defeat.
The Beanpot is one of baseball's hidden gems, and this season marks a return to Fenway Park for the championship round. Last season, Harvard defeated the Eagles in the first round in 11 innings, 7-4, ending BC's championship streak at three years. In last year's consolation round, BC laid a 9-2 victory on the Minutemen in the teams' first second round meeting since the 2015 championship.
Players Mentioned
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