No Sleep Till Birdball

Todd Interdonato didn't even look tired.

The head coach of the Boston College baseball program was on his second night taking questions from media amassed in a late-night press conference room. His Eagles arrived in North Carolina after playing their first-ever series at California over the previous weekend, and they hadn't shipped back to Boston before traveling to Tobacco Road for this week's ACC Baseball Championship tournament. The No. 14 seed of a 16-team tournament faced an incredible road involving two consecutive 9 p.m. start times, and the road became ever more daunting when each day's three-game marathon pushed the Eagles beyond 10 p.m.

Interdonato watched his team twice play into overnight darkness while the majority of east coast college baseball slumbered, but he looked fresher than the Wednesday before the trip to Berkeley. In fact, he sat primed to watch more baseball, though that's probably because it was hard to stay exhausted when his team forced its way into the ACC Quarterfinals with a 12-8 win over sixth-seeded Virginia.

"When I got into this league, there were a handful of coaches that I knew pretty well from the same league that I was in," said Interdonato. "There were a handful of coaches that I knew professionally or [through] acquaintances, and there were a handful of coaches that I didn't know at all. [Virginia head coach] Brian [O'Connor] was one [that I didn't know], but his reputation preceded him…I don't know if I have more respect for any other head coach around the country. Before the game, I said, 'I just want to tell you how much respect I have for you guys turning [the season] around and turning yourselves into a postseason team.' There's no doubt that that's an NCAA Regional team, and I give them a ton of credit. We played a really good game of baseball, and we were just fortunate to come out on top."

The inherent modesty regarding Virginia understated how Birdball blitzed one of the most talented teams in college baseball. Earlier marathons in Cal's win over Wake and Duke's walk-off win over Pitt forced BC to start its game against the Cavaliers after 10 p.m., but the late night redux from the first-round win over Notre Dame shifted considerably when the Eagles tagged starting pitcher Jay Woolfolk for five runs in the first inning.

The Eagles stole two bags and plated two runs before the 'Hoos ever recorded an out, and Jack Toomey advanced himself to third when Gunnar Johnson reached first on an infield single. They both later scored when Esteban Garcia grounded into a misplay at first, and Adam Magpoc plated both Garcia and Johnson with a double down the line before stealing third and running into the final out at the plate on the fifth steal attempt of the inning.

"When we played [Woolfolk] earlier in the year, he had what we call a 'split leg delivery,'" said Interdonato. "He's a little bit tighter with his leg lift, and he's a little bit quicker to the plate. I noticed on film over his last couple of outings that he was going high-leg with his knee above the belt. So I was thinking that he was going to go back to his tighter delivery, and I told our guys to expect the tighter delivery. We read and reacted, and as soon as [Josiah Ragsdale] led off with a catcher's interference, his knee was above the belt. That's what we saw on film, that's what we trusted and put into play."

Mentally defusing Woolfolk eliminated a top-250 draft prospect before he completed a second inning of work, and BC chased him with seven runs allowed, four earned, and four hits allowed with a walk. Two of those hits went for extra bases – both doubles – and forced Virginia to work deep into its bullpen for the first time since Evan Blanco threw three-plus innings during the mid-May series against Miami. He'd relieved Bradley Hodges after Hodges threw three innings in that game, which was still significantly longer than the 1.1 innings turned by Woolfolk in the uncharacteristic performance.

BC, meanwhile, similarly turned to its bullpen after Kyle Kipp entered the game in the third inning. Relieving Brady Miller after the starter surrendered four runs in the first two innings, the sophomore fired three innings of two-hit baseball with a strikeout before John Kwiatkowski bridged three hitters in a firewagon sixth inning. He surrendered runs that were ultimately charged to Kipp – though unearned because Harrison Didawick reached via an error – but was able to get out of the inning with the Eagles still leading by one.

"We went to Kyle, who hadn't had an appearance in a while," said Interdonato, "and he threw some really good fastballs. He was able to land both his breaking ball and his split change."

Moving from arm-to-arm kept BC's lineup afloat long enough for two later outcomes that intertwined with one another. First came Cesar Gonzalez's 11th outing as a pitcher after spending the bulk of the season behind the dish as a catcher, which in turn slammed the door on Virginia's lineup in the seventh. The Eagle bats then plated a crooked number in the late eighth, which allowed Gonzalez to strand two in the bottom half before fanning two as part of a 1-2-3 ninth.

"I was just trying to work with my fastball," he said. "A lot of high fastballs and trusting my pitching coach, who was calling out the pitches."

Beating Virginia – a likely tournament team – now throws a complete wrench into the perfect fit for the ACC's future tournament. Like Cal, which advanced to a Quarterfinal matchup with regular season champion Georgia Tech, the Eagles crashed the league's first 16-team bracket by advancing out of the first round with two wins, but BC, unlike the Golden Bears, have the added advantage of a built-in day off between the Second Round and the Quarterfinal.

Cal needed to beat the ACC's best team after enduring a marathon, 14-12 win against Wake Forest during a bracket designed to benefit the top seed. As is the case with most single-elimination formats, the lower seed wouldn't have been able to rest before facing the No. 1 team's double-bye, and the win assured extra rest for the Yellow Jackets before the semifinal begins on Saturday.

Keeping the lowest chalk seeds available meant this side of the bracket would have featured the No. 2, No. 3, No. 6 and No. 7 seed, but the win instead handed BC a much-needed day off ahead of its game against the third-seeded Tar Heels. That means that staff ace A.J. Colarusso can start against North Carolina, and the Eagles hypothetically can proceed through the weekend with a normal weekend setup.

"I don't think you should ever measure a team by one game," said Virginia's O'Connor. "It's a long season, and this [was] one ball game. In football, one game makes the world of difference. In baseball, it doesn't work that way. [Losing in the tournament] can happen to any team."

The 2025 ACC Baseball Championship completes its quarterfinal round on Friday when No. 2 Florida State plays No. 7 Duke at 3 p.m. No. 14 Boston College and No. 3 North Carolina will follow with a scheduled 7 p.m. first pitch. All television coverage is set for the ACC Network with online streaming available through ESPN's family of Internet and mobile device apps for cable subscribers with access to the network.

Players Mentioned

A.J. Colarusso

Esteban Garcia

Cesar Gonzalez

Gunnar Johnson

Kyle Kipp

John Kwiatkowski

Adam Magpoc

Brady Miller

Josiah Ragsdale

Jack Toomey

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