Photo by: Andy Mead
BC Builds Tournament Case With ACC Cinderella Run
May 26, 2019 | Baseball, #ForBoston Files
Saturday's loss hands baseball's candidacy over to the selection committee.
This past week conjured memories of the magical 2016 postseason run for Boston College baseball. Its takedown rally over Clemson and upset over Louisville provided an immediate shockwave into the college baseball world, and it began to draw comparison to arguably the program's most successful season. It made fast heroes out of its players, with a hard charge to the finish providing a glimpse into what could be an NCAA Tournament contender.
Whether or not BC has done enough is now in the hands of the NCAA Selection Committee. The Cinderella run through the ACC Tournament ended on Saturday with a 13-5 defeat to North Carolina, ending what was the deepest run by an Eagle team in the conference tournament. It did nothing, though, to diminish hopes that the bubble wasn't quite ready to break.
"Watching that ballgame and watching these boys fight this week and the last weeks is (that) I think we're a tournament team," head coach Mike Gambino said. "I hope the committee is listening and watching and seeing what these guys have done. You get to 31 wins, and to do what these guys have done, I think these boys deserve a chance to play for a national championship. I believe they've earned it, I believe they're worthy, and I think that when we're looking at 64 teams in the country, I think we've got to be one of them."
There is a compelling case for the Eagles' candidacy. BC's finished the 2019 regular season, including the conference tournament, with the same number of wins that it had in 2016. There were more losses, but there were substantially less rainouts and snowouts.
The Eagles won approximately the same number of conference games, doing so by avoiding a sweep in every ACC series except for one. In that series, BC pushed UNC to extra innings twice, a team with which it continued to compete and which may find itself hosting a regional when hosts are announced at the end of the weekend.
"We've been great, responding to the other team scoring runs," Jack Cunningham said. "Especially the last two weeks, we felt like we're one of the best teams in the country, and when we rally together, we feel like we can overcome any deficit."
BC's candidacy will likely take a hit as a result of more non-conference losses against non-tournament teams, but winning ACC games should have a mitigating effect. It's incredibly hard to judge midweek games, especially early in a season when teams are establishing depth beyond the weekend starters. In BC's case, it becomes especially hard because it only lost two midweek games after April began, and it holds a dominating win over Quinnipiac, which is entering the Field of 64 as the MAAC champion.
"For the past five weeks, we've really just been facing a lot of adversity and we always persevere, it seems like," Joe Suozzi said. "It's not like one guy this whole year has really stuck out. There's guys that play better than others, but we've just had team wins after team wins, and it's a whole group effort every game, especially the past five weeks."
Those past five weeks will have to be what the selection committee bases its decision on. Latest projections have four ACC teams hosting regionals with three more advancing to the tournament. That would indicate that the Eagles are still on the outside looking in, but no team enters the postseason on a similar hot streak, with nine wins in its last 11 games before the loss to UNC.
It's an interesting case because Boston College doesn't necessarily have the same MLB Draft-ready, big names as other programs. The Eagles are a young, developing roster that lost some of those early games because its players were still figuring out how to play college baseball. They needed those early hurdles to develop the trademark cohesion and chemistry that BC is becoming known for. Once they struck that oil, they became one of the most formidable teams in one of the most formidable conferences.
It turned unknown and unheralded players into forces of nature. Jake Alu nearly broke the single season program record for hits and entered the UNC game with a .346 batting average. Cody Morrisette had two home runs the whole season, then blasted two against Clemson to up his second half batting average to .441. Jack Cunningham became BC's most prolific power hitter since Chris Shaw, who was a first round draft pick. Gian Martellini hit almost .400 down the stretch and was a video review away from scoring two runs against UNC. Chris Galland became one of the fastest players to 100 career hits.
The pitching staff, meanwhile, developed two top-end starters, which teams historically need to advance through the national tournament. The combination of Dan Metzdorf and Mason Pelio plowed through pool play and began drawing comparisons to Justin Dunn and Michael King, both of which will be big leaguers this year.
The duo struck out 112 hitters during ACC games, finishing the year with a combined WHIP of 1.21 in games against conference foes. Pelio held hitters to a .185 clip, providing a youthful spark that helped push Metzdorf into becoming one of the league's most feared Friday starters. Of the five All-ACC selections, the senior was the only First Team pick, and he threw his first career complete game against Louisville during this past week - the same Louisville team that will likely host a regional with the inside track to hosting the Super Regional.
It's standard proof that Boston College has the results to completely shred any perception that Mike Gambino couldn't build a successful team in New England. The seniors leaving the team after this season made the NCAA Tournament as freshmen and put the program in position for a second trip by a single class, something never achieved in the modern era. It's because they bought into what the coach sold, then committed themselves to making it happen. That became infectious throughout the program, and in a sport traditionally dominated by southern powerhouses, there's a northern tidal wave rising.
"There's been a lot of talk about the young players on this team and what's coming into the program," Gambino said. "We were sort of a non-factor in the college baseball landscape, as this thing started to build, and the seniors committed to just a vision. We told them what we thought we could be. They came to BC without a baseball field. We told them they would have a chance to go to Omaha, and their freshman year, we're one hanging changeup away from going to Omaha. And that 2016 group, this group here is now built off of that in the recruiting landscape that takes a couple years.
"Now you put a new facility and phase two of that facility," he said. "They're breaking ground (soon), with this group - it's just been a really fun couple of years. The success this freshman class had is because of the lessons these seniors learned and what they've done for the program."
It would make Boston College an instant player on the national scene. The Eagles have been to three of the last four ACC Tournaments, and an NCAA berth would mark two over that same time period. Those are numbers that would compare to the best in the country, which is exactly what this team wants to become and is on the verge of being - as long as the selection committee sees it the same way.
"We recruit tough, competitive, high academic kids (with) tremendous character, and tremendous work ethic," Gambino said. "It's a developmental program so guys like Danny Metzdorf and Jake Alu and Gian aren't quite ready on day one, but in a world like college baseball, if you're not ready on day one, then you would have ended up at a junior college These guys just work and get better and get better and turn into some of the players in our conference."
Whether or not BC has done enough is now in the hands of the NCAA Selection Committee. The Cinderella run through the ACC Tournament ended on Saturday with a 13-5 defeat to North Carolina, ending what was the deepest run by an Eagle team in the conference tournament. It did nothing, though, to diminish hopes that the bubble wasn't quite ready to break.
"Watching that ballgame and watching these boys fight this week and the last weeks is (that) I think we're a tournament team," head coach Mike Gambino said. "I hope the committee is listening and watching and seeing what these guys have done. You get to 31 wins, and to do what these guys have done, I think these boys deserve a chance to play for a national championship. I believe they've earned it, I believe they're worthy, and I think that when we're looking at 64 teams in the country, I think we've got to be one of them."
There is a compelling case for the Eagles' candidacy. BC's finished the 2019 regular season, including the conference tournament, with the same number of wins that it had in 2016. There were more losses, but there were substantially less rainouts and snowouts.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
A breakdown of BC's schedule puts the Eagles in elite company. Boston College is one of just 10 teams in the country with 18 or more wins away from home and nine or more wins against top-50 RPI opponents. BC enters championship Sunday with a RPI of 55 and looks to become just the eighth team in the last six years to receive an at-large bid to the tournament.
The Eagles survived the gauntlet that is the ACC regular season and qualified for the conference tournament on the final weekend. All 14 teams were still in contention for Durham entering the final weekend - a testament to the league's parity.
Boston College played 23 games against ranked opponents this season; the most among ACC teams. The Eagles played most league opponents at their peak, including No. 1 NC State and two wins against a top-10 Louisville team. The ACC is virtually a lock for six teams in the tournament with five on the bubble, including BC, Duke, Florida State, Virginia and Wake Forest. Within that group, the Eagles' record of opponents in ACC play is the best at 158-142.
The Eagles won approximately the same number of conference games, doing so by avoiding a sweep in every ACC series except for one. In that series, BC pushed UNC to extra innings twice, a team with which it continued to compete and which may find itself hosting a regional when hosts are announced at the end of the weekend.
"We've been great, responding to the other team scoring runs," Jack Cunningham said. "Especially the last two weeks, we felt like we're one of the best teams in the country, and when we rally together, we feel like we can overcome any deficit."
BC's candidacy will likely take a hit as a result of more non-conference losses against non-tournament teams, but winning ACC games should have a mitigating effect. It's incredibly hard to judge midweek games, especially early in a season when teams are establishing depth beyond the weekend starters. In BC's case, it becomes especially hard because it only lost two midweek games after April began, and it holds a dominating win over Quinnipiac, which is entering the Field of 64 as the MAAC champion.
"For the past five weeks, we've really just been facing a lot of adversity and we always persevere, it seems like," Joe Suozzi said. "It's not like one guy this whole year has really stuck out. There's guys that play better than others, but we've just had team wins after team wins, and it's a whole group effort every game, especially the past five weeks."
Those past five weeks will have to be what the selection committee bases its decision on. Latest projections have four ACC teams hosting regionals with three more advancing to the tournament. That would indicate that the Eagles are still on the outside looking in, but no team enters the postseason on a similar hot streak, with nine wins in its last 11 games before the loss to UNC.
It's an interesting case because Boston College doesn't necessarily have the same MLB Draft-ready, big names as other programs. The Eagles are a young, developing roster that lost some of those early games because its players were still figuring out how to play college baseball. They needed those early hurdles to develop the trademark cohesion and chemistry that BC is becoming known for. Once they struck that oil, they became one of the most formidable teams in one of the most formidable conferences.
It turned unknown and unheralded players into forces of nature. Jake Alu nearly broke the single season program record for hits and entered the UNC game with a .346 batting average. Cody Morrisette had two home runs the whole season, then blasted two against Clemson to up his second half batting average to .441. Jack Cunningham became BC's most prolific power hitter since Chris Shaw, who was a first round draft pick. Gian Martellini hit almost .400 down the stretch and was a video review away from scoring two runs against UNC. Chris Galland became one of the fastest players to 100 career hits.
The pitching staff, meanwhile, developed two top-end starters, which teams historically need to advance through the national tournament. The combination of Dan Metzdorf and Mason Pelio plowed through pool play and began drawing comparisons to Justin Dunn and Michael King, both of which will be big leaguers this year.
The duo struck out 112 hitters during ACC games, finishing the year with a combined WHIP of 1.21 in games against conference foes. Pelio held hitters to a .185 clip, providing a youthful spark that helped push Metzdorf into becoming one of the league's most feared Friday starters. Of the five All-ACC selections, the senior was the only First Team pick, and he threw his first career complete game against Louisville during this past week - the same Louisville team that will likely host a regional with the inside track to hosting the Super Regional.
It's standard proof that Boston College has the results to completely shred any perception that Mike Gambino couldn't build a successful team in New England. The seniors leaving the team after this season made the NCAA Tournament as freshmen and put the program in position for a second trip by a single class, something never achieved in the modern era. It's because they bought into what the coach sold, then committed themselves to making it happen. That became infectious throughout the program, and in a sport traditionally dominated by southern powerhouses, there's a northern tidal wave rising.
"There's been a lot of talk about the young players on this team and what's coming into the program," Gambino said. "We were sort of a non-factor in the college baseball landscape, as this thing started to build, and the seniors committed to just a vision. We told them what we thought we could be. They came to BC without a baseball field. We told them they would have a chance to go to Omaha, and their freshman year, we're one hanging changeup away from going to Omaha. And that 2016 group, this group here is now built off of that in the recruiting landscape that takes a couple years.
"Now you put a new facility and phase two of that facility," he said. "They're breaking ground (soon), with this group - it's just been a really fun couple of years. The success this freshman class had is because of the lessons these seniors learned and what they've done for the program."
It would make Boston College an instant player on the national scene. The Eagles have been to three of the last four ACC Tournaments, and an NCAA berth would mark two over that same time period. Those are numbers that would compare to the best in the country, which is exactly what this team wants to become and is on the verge of being - as long as the selection committee sees it the same way.
"We recruit tough, competitive, high academic kids (with) tremendous character, and tremendous work ethic," Gambino said. "It's a developmental program so guys like Danny Metzdorf and Jake Alu and Gian aren't quite ready on day one, but in a world like college baseball, if you're not ready on day one, then you would have ended up at a junior college These guys just work and get better and get better and turn into some of the players in our conference."
Players Mentioned
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