Photo by: Katie Peverada
Comeback Win Rips Lid Off Baseball Bias
March 25, 2021 | Baseball, #ForBoston Files
Those northeast teams sure know how to play tough, don't they?
Wednesday afternoon's midweek game between Boston College and Merrimack was a mismatch on paper.
A power conference, national caliber team sat in the home dugout, days removed from an emotional weekend series against another nationally-ranked team. A mid-major team recognized less than two years into its Division I era sat in the other dugout days removed from losing a series by a combined 32-1 score. The home team had a resume fit for the national tournament, and the road team was playing its 25th game since leaving Division II behind.
It wasn't exactly a baseball dream matchup, but the game itself was a glimpse into why Northeast baseball is as unpredictable as ever. Merrimack's bats pounded eight runs across the first three innings before the Eagles settled into a groove, and BC's five-run seventh pushed the home side past a plucky, upstart program, 10-9, at the Harrington Athletics Village.
"We have a group of young arms that we think has a chance to be really, really good and really, really special," head coach Mike Gambino said, "and the teams that we play midweek are very good. So taking these midweek games are really, really critical to continue to develop them and get in those innings. Part of what we do here is that we're built on player development, so getting guys in there to get their innings and let them work through stuff, let them figure stuff out."
That the game occurred at all was a trip into the weird and sometimes whacky COVID-era scheduling arrangements. It was BC's fourth consecutive midweek home game and a postponement from last week's game not played in Brighton, but it replaced a traditional game against Northeastern after Tuesday night never happened.
Each of those four weeks included at least one game moved, canceled, postponed or added since BC's March 3 victory over Rhode Island that moved the home opener forward by one week. That game - the earliest home opener in program history - preceded a cancellation of the original home opener against Holy Cross with a game against Maine sprinkled in for good measure.
The majority of those games looked like mismatches, but the combination of BC's national ranking and a midweek roster offering different looks and approaches created conditions for offensive slugfests. For Merrimack, a team that used to play in the Northeast-10 with both UMass-Lowell and Bryant, that meant two early home runs and a first inning grand slam as it claimed an 8-0 advantage.
BC eventually caught up with runs in four consecutive innings, and Luke Gold and Jack Cunningham plated three runs with doubles in the bottom of the seventh. A wild pitch eventually tied the game, and a second throw got to the backstop to score Cameron Leary with the eventual game-winner.
The heart-wrenching moment torpedoed the upset bid, but the moment and game wasn't lost on any of the Eagles. Merrimack showed up ready for a baseball fight and stood toe-to-toe with BC for the better part of six innings.Â
"Northeast baseball just continues to get better and better," Gambino said. "You're seeing more and more programs invest in facilities, invest in staffs, invest in scholarships. I really, truly believe that northeast baseball has always been really good. The problem was that we weren't able to keep enough of the kids home for everybody to see what college baseball up here would look like if everybody stayed home. I think a lot of people are starting to see that and realize that."
Boston College eventually won the game, but it showed that the programs up here are all taking on the reputation of the hard-nosed, rugged baseball teams who are improving with steady dedication. Merrimack started its transition to Division I status when it joined the Northeast Conference last year and became the second new Massachusetts-based program to join the top flight over the last 10 years. Both teams left Division II's Northeast-10 Conference, the originating league of Bryant before the Bulldogs moved at the start of the 2010s.
The NE-10 is the league now recognized as the home of Southern New Hampshire University, which advanced to the NCAA Division II College World Series in 2018. That was the same year as UMass-Boston's second of three consecutive trips to the Division III national tournament, a string that ran straight into 2019 with a trip to the D3 College World Series.
The Beacons' run included a great head-to-head rivalry with Babson, and both teams advanced to the College World Series in that last season. Sean Harrington was the starting catcher for the Beavers and a career .310 hitter with slugging percentages and on-base percentages that never really wavered over his 110-plus game career.Â
After playing in only three games last year before COVID-19 canceled his season, Harrington transferred to Division I and joined BC for a graduate year. He started on Wednesday and went 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored in his third appearance for the Eagles. He recorded eight putouts behind the plate before Chris Galland pinch ran for him.
"It's awesome having him," Gambino said. "We knew he was going to give us some catching depth, and his bat's been awesome. He was great all the way through (Wednesday). The kids on the team love him, and he's already taken a leadership role. They love how hard he works, how committed he is, and how much he loves here. There was kind of a fun, really cool buzz when he found out he was starting."
Harrington's breakout underscored the commitment now paying off on the baseball recruiting trail. It's no secret how the vast majority of top recruits used to leave the region in order to play college baseball in the South, but increasing numbers are more likely to stay home and play for a number of different teams. BC is the clear power destination of New England and New York players like Joey Walsh, Vince Cimini, Luke Gold, Daniel Baruch and Evan Moore, but the more options are now creating a culture that's both unique and ready to explode on the national stage.
Merrimack beat both Oral Roberts and Michigan State last year and was far from intimidated by the Eagles on Wednesday night. The Warriors' bats pounded the first couple of innings and capitalized on mistake pitches, and the talent gap between the transitional team and the top-25 team wasn't exposed until the late innings. It was a good baseball game, one the baseball gods identified as a competitive matchup, and one believed anything that couldn't show up on paper.
"It's been happening in Division II and Division III with what they've been able to do in getting to the College World Series a couple of times," Gambino said, "but we hadn't been able to keep all those guys here. We're seeing a lot more of them stay home, and baseball is huge in the Northeast. There's Red Sox Nation, and everybody loves professional baseball here. Now they're starting to see the excitement, especially with this (BC) team, which is about college baseball in general."
A power conference, national caliber team sat in the home dugout, days removed from an emotional weekend series against another nationally-ranked team. A mid-major team recognized less than two years into its Division I era sat in the other dugout days removed from losing a series by a combined 32-1 score. The home team had a resume fit for the national tournament, and the road team was playing its 25th game since leaving Division II behind.
It wasn't exactly a baseball dream matchup, but the game itself was a glimpse into why Northeast baseball is as unpredictable as ever. Merrimack's bats pounded eight runs across the first three innings before the Eagles settled into a groove, and BC's five-run seventh pushed the home side past a plucky, upstart program, 10-9, at the Harrington Athletics Village.
"We have a group of young arms that we think has a chance to be really, really good and really, really special," head coach Mike Gambino said, "and the teams that we play midweek are very good. So taking these midweek games are really, really critical to continue to develop them and get in those innings. Part of what we do here is that we're built on player development, so getting guys in there to get their innings and let them work through stuff, let them figure stuff out."
That the game occurred at all was a trip into the weird and sometimes whacky COVID-era scheduling arrangements. It was BC's fourth consecutive midweek home game and a postponement from last week's game not played in Brighton, but it replaced a traditional game against Northeastern after Tuesday night never happened.
Each of those four weeks included at least one game moved, canceled, postponed or added since BC's March 3 victory over Rhode Island that moved the home opener forward by one week. That game - the earliest home opener in program history - preceded a cancellation of the original home opener against Holy Cross with a game against Maine sprinkled in for good measure.
The majority of those games looked like mismatches, but the combination of BC's national ranking and a midweek roster offering different looks and approaches created conditions for offensive slugfests. For Merrimack, a team that used to play in the Northeast-10 with both UMass-Lowell and Bryant, that meant two early home runs and a first inning grand slam as it claimed an 8-0 advantage.
BC eventually caught up with runs in four consecutive innings, and Luke Gold and Jack Cunningham plated three runs with doubles in the bottom of the seventh. A wild pitch eventually tied the game, and a second throw got to the backstop to score Cameron Leary with the eventual game-winner.
The heart-wrenching moment torpedoed the upset bid, but the moment and game wasn't lost on any of the Eagles. Merrimack showed up ready for a baseball fight and stood toe-to-toe with BC for the better part of six innings.Â
"Northeast baseball just continues to get better and better," Gambino said. "You're seeing more and more programs invest in facilities, invest in staffs, invest in scholarships. I really, truly believe that northeast baseball has always been really good. The problem was that we weren't able to keep enough of the kids home for everybody to see what college baseball up here would look like if everybody stayed home. I think a lot of people are starting to see that and realize that."
Boston College eventually won the game, but it showed that the programs up here are all taking on the reputation of the hard-nosed, rugged baseball teams who are improving with steady dedication. Merrimack started its transition to Division I status when it joined the Northeast Conference last year and became the second new Massachusetts-based program to join the top flight over the last 10 years. Both teams left Division II's Northeast-10 Conference, the originating league of Bryant before the Bulldogs moved at the start of the 2010s.
The NE-10 is the league now recognized as the home of Southern New Hampshire University, which advanced to the NCAA Division II College World Series in 2018. That was the same year as UMass-Boston's second of three consecutive trips to the Division III national tournament, a string that ran straight into 2019 with a trip to the D3 College World Series.
The Beacons' run included a great head-to-head rivalry with Babson, and both teams advanced to the College World Series in that last season. Sean Harrington was the starting catcher for the Beavers and a career .310 hitter with slugging percentages and on-base percentages that never really wavered over his 110-plus game career.Â
After playing in only three games last year before COVID-19 canceled his season, Harrington transferred to Division I and joined BC for a graduate year. He started on Wednesday and went 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored in his third appearance for the Eagles. He recorded eight putouts behind the plate before Chris Galland pinch ran for him.
"It's awesome having him," Gambino said. "We knew he was going to give us some catching depth, and his bat's been awesome. He was great all the way through (Wednesday). The kids on the team love him, and he's already taken a leadership role. They love how hard he works, how committed he is, and how much he loves here. There was kind of a fun, really cool buzz when he found out he was starting."
Harrington's breakout underscored the commitment now paying off on the baseball recruiting trail. It's no secret how the vast majority of top recruits used to leave the region in order to play college baseball in the South, but increasing numbers are more likely to stay home and play for a number of different teams. BC is the clear power destination of New England and New York players like Joey Walsh, Vince Cimini, Luke Gold, Daniel Baruch and Evan Moore, but the more options are now creating a culture that's both unique and ready to explode on the national stage.
Merrimack beat both Oral Roberts and Michigan State last year and was far from intimidated by the Eagles on Wednesday night. The Warriors' bats pounded the first couple of innings and capitalized on mistake pitches, and the talent gap between the transitional team and the top-25 team wasn't exposed until the late innings. It was a good baseball game, one the baseball gods identified as a competitive matchup, and one believed anything that couldn't show up on paper.
"It's been happening in Division II and Division III with what they've been able to do in getting to the College World Series a couple of times," Gambino said, "but we hadn't been able to keep all those guys here. We're seeing a lot more of them stay home, and baseball is huge in the Northeast. There's Red Sox Nation, and everybody loves professional baseball here. Now they're starting to see the excitement, especially with this (BC) team, which is about college baseball in general."
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