Boston College Athletics
Photo by: Meg Kelly
Long Night Yields Clarity As BC Awaits Miami-Stanford Winner
May 20, 2026 | Baseball, #ForBoston Files
The Eagles will face one of two very different opponents.
The 2005 postseason is often overlooked as a relic to a golden era in Major League Baseball history. Sandwiched into the aftermath of the Boston Red Sox' curse-busting comeback over the hated New York Yankees and the subsequent first World Series championship in 86 years, the Chicago White Sox' dominant run to their first world championship since 1917 and the first title since the infamous 1919 Black Sox scandal was essentially lost in the annals of baseball lore, and even fewer remember how their National League foil from Houston advanced through the National League postseason.
Maybe it's because the Astros later claimed two World Series pennants as members of the Junior Circuit, or maybe it's because the White Sox won eight straight games after losing their only postseason game in the American League Championship Series. Their 11-1 record tied the 1999 Yankees for the greatest postseason run in MLB's one-wild card era, so it's hard to imagine any kind of drama on par with how the Red Sox rallied from a three-loss deficit in the previous year's American League Championship Series.
Nevertheless, the White Sox' World Series win relegated the Astros' 2005 Division Series victory over the Atlanta Braves to footnote status, and the next decade ultimately erased a five-hour, 18-inning showdown from the top slot of longest games in postseason history. Still, Roger Clemens pitching three relief innings ahead of Chris Burke's walk-off homer as a lunchtime first pitch stretched through the dinner hour is a moment etched into baseball history because of its length.
On Tuesday morning, Duke and NC State kicked off the 2026 ACC Baseball Championship by attempting to match the time, albeit without the innings, when their 9 a.m. start time stretched until 2 p.m. with 30-plus runs throughout the first game of the first day of the league conference tournament.
Playing through the lunch hour forced the ACC tournament to stretch deep into the Charlotte night for its final game between Pittsburgh and Louisville. The second game between Cal and Stanford summarily started approximately 90 minutes after its 1 p.m. start time, and another three-hour affair forced the team to finish their game after the dinner hour at 5 p.m. Already expecting to finish their game in the mid-afternoon North Carolina heat, the Cardinal used six pitchers in a staff-based start totaling 121 pitches against a Golden Bear team that pushed a 1-0 lead through the middle of the third inning while leaving seven men on base against their most ancient former Pac-12 rival.
"We pitched how we pitch," said Stanford head coach David Esquer. "If you watched [our team] play this year, you're going to see six guys, and we're not going to let anybody stay in there too long to get in trouble. Sometimes we try to win by pitch confusion, and that's how we had to do it [on Tuesday]. Our pitchers did a good job, and some guys have really grown into that role where they get a chance to pitch for an inning or a small piece, and then we get them out of there."
None of Stanford's pitchers, except for weekend starter Nick Dugan, threw 50 innings during the regular season, but the stress test on staying out of trouble is a massive contrast from a Miami team with one of the best weekend staffs in the league. Nearly half of the arms available for head coach J.D. Arteaga averaged less than 1.50 walks and hits per innings pitched, and starting pitcher Rob Evans held hitters to a .206 batting average with an overall 9-4 record during the regular season. His 92 strikeouts were two less than Cal's Gavin Eddy and in line with several of the league's best power pitchers, and his previous start against the Cardinal ended in the eighth inning of a 6-3 win with eight strikeouts and three hits allowed.
"Early on in the season, I brought the pitching staff together and told [them] that we were going to use everybody in small pieces," said Esquer. "We were going to go with short bursts that would hopefully start to build a bit of a resume with some of these guys in short spurts of success. We've done a good job, and we've given ourselves opportunities to win, and when we've dropped games, it's not necessarily been because we've been giving it up on the mound. That's prepared us for tournament baseball."
Using Evans against Stanford eliminates the possibility of Miami doubling down on a starter who threw seven innings with eight strikeouts in a 5-3 win over Boston College, but it lends murkiness to who might appear for the Cardinal. Toran O'Harran and Aidan Keenan each threw less than 50 pitches across the first five innings, and Ben Reimers fired eight strikes on nine pitches in his lone inning of work in the eighth.
Neither of those early pitchers worked consecutive games down the stretch, but Keenan's appearance against the Golden Bears marked his second straight game after missing most of April. Reimers, a more pure form of a relief pitcher, threw back-to-back appearances over the weekend before giving the Cardinal his near-perfect inning on Tuesday.
"We have guys who know how to throw [every day]," said Esquer. "Cohen Gomez is ready to pitch every day, so he might get an inning [against Miami], and that hopefully works to our advantage. If we can stay here a little bit, you'd see [some of the] same names show up quite often."
No. 12 Stanford plays No. 5 Miami in the second game of Wednesday's Second Round action and is slotted for a 1 p.m. start after No. 16 Duke plays No. 8 Virginia in the morning session. No. 10 Notre Dame, which defeated Clemson in the First Round, plays No. 7 Virginia Tech at 5 p.m. with Pitt playing No. 6 Wake Forest in the nightcap. All games are scheduled for televised coverage on ACC Network, with Boston College set to face the winner of Stanford and Miami, on Thursday, at 3 p.m.
Maybe it's because the Astros later claimed two World Series pennants as members of the Junior Circuit, or maybe it's because the White Sox won eight straight games after losing their only postseason game in the American League Championship Series. Their 11-1 record tied the 1999 Yankees for the greatest postseason run in MLB's one-wild card era, so it's hard to imagine any kind of drama on par with how the Red Sox rallied from a three-loss deficit in the previous year's American League Championship Series.
Nevertheless, the White Sox' World Series win relegated the Astros' 2005 Division Series victory over the Atlanta Braves to footnote status, and the next decade ultimately erased a five-hour, 18-inning showdown from the top slot of longest games in postseason history. Still, Roger Clemens pitching three relief innings ahead of Chris Burke's walk-off homer as a lunchtime first pitch stretched through the dinner hour is a moment etched into baseball history because of its length.
On Tuesday morning, Duke and NC State kicked off the 2026 ACC Baseball Championship by attempting to match the time, albeit without the innings, when their 9 a.m. start time stretched until 2 p.m. with 30-plus runs throughout the first game of the first day of the league conference tournament.
Playing through the lunch hour forced the ACC tournament to stretch deep into the Charlotte night for its final game between Pittsburgh and Louisville. The second game between Cal and Stanford summarily started approximately 90 minutes after its 1 p.m. start time, and another three-hour affair forced the team to finish their game after the dinner hour at 5 p.m. Already expecting to finish their game in the mid-afternoon North Carolina heat, the Cardinal used six pitchers in a staff-based start totaling 121 pitches against a Golden Bear team that pushed a 1-0 lead through the middle of the third inning while leaving seven men on base against their most ancient former Pac-12 rival.
"We pitched how we pitch," said Stanford head coach David Esquer. "If you watched [our team] play this year, you're going to see six guys, and we're not going to let anybody stay in there too long to get in trouble. Sometimes we try to win by pitch confusion, and that's how we had to do it [on Tuesday]. Our pitchers did a good job, and some guys have really grown into that role where they get a chance to pitch for an inning or a small piece, and then we get them out of there."
None of Stanford's pitchers, except for weekend starter Nick Dugan, threw 50 innings during the regular season, but the stress test on staying out of trouble is a massive contrast from a Miami team with one of the best weekend staffs in the league. Nearly half of the arms available for head coach J.D. Arteaga averaged less than 1.50 walks and hits per innings pitched, and starting pitcher Rob Evans held hitters to a .206 batting average with an overall 9-4 record during the regular season. His 92 strikeouts were two less than Cal's Gavin Eddy and in line with several of the league's best power pitchers, and his previous start against the Cardinal ended in the eighth inning of a 6-3 win with eight strikeouts and three hits allowed.
"Early on in the season, I brought the pitching staff together and told [them] that we were going to use everybody in small pieces," said Esquer. "We were going to go with short bursts that would hopefully start to build a bit of a resume with some of these guys in short spurts of success. We've done a good job, and we've given ourselves opportunities to win, and when we've dropped games, it's not necessarily been because we've been giving it up on the mound. That's prepared us for tournament baseball."
Using Evans against Stanford eliminates the possibility of Miami doubling down on a starter who threw seven innings with eight strikeouts in a 5-3 win over Boston College, but it lends murkiness to who might appear for the Cardinal. Toran O'Harran and Aidan Keenan each threw less than 50 pitches across the first five innings, and Ben Reimers fired eight strikes on nine pitches in his lone inning of work in the eighth.
Neither of those early pitchers worked consecutive games down the stretch, but Keenan's appearance against the Golden Bears marked his second straight game after missing most of April. Reimers, a more pure form of a relief pitcher, threw back-to-back appearances over the weekend before giving the Cardinal his near-perfect inning on Tuesday.
"We have guys who know how to throw [every day]," said Esquer. "Cohen Gomez is ready to pitch every day, so he might get an inning [against Miami], and that hopefully works to our advantage. If we can stay here a little bit, you'd see [some of the] same names show up quite often."
No. 12 Stanford plays No. 5 Miami in the second game of Wednesday's Second Round action and is slotted for a 1 p.m. start after No. 16 Duke plays No. 8 Virginia in the morning session. No. 10 Notre Dame, which defeated Clemson in the First Round, plays No. 7 Virginia Tech at 5 p.m. with Pitt playing No. 6 Wake Forest in the nightcap. All games are scheduled for televised coverage on ACC Network, with Boston College set to face the winner of Stanford and Miami, on Thursday, at 3 p.m.
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