Eagle Links: 6/5

BC's problems this year are way too similar to Virginia's problems last offseason. Its actually pretty scary how similar they are.

After winning the national title, finishing third finishing 5th Nationally. BC sailor Adam Roberts won the award equivalent to the heisman in college football.

Apparently, BC was in talks with the ever hated but talks about lots Greg Paulus about coming to BC. Little did they know how much they could use another QB now. However, it wouldn't have been possible anyways because of the inter conference transfer rules.

Some of the Texas' players gear is going to the Baseball Hall of Fame after that epic 25 inning game. Apparently only one team played in that game.

Tony Sanchez is definitely a top prospect who will go in the first round of this years MLB Draft has also been named a finalist for the Johnny Bench award.

The guys over at Testudo Times have an early preview on ACC basketball for next year. They believe Rice leaving is going to be huge but I feel otherwise.

Eagle Links: 6/2

Jeff from BC Interruption has a nice recap of the NCAA Baseball tournament and what the move to the ACC has done for the BC Baseball program.

Dominique Davis has been ruled out academically this year and is now transferring from BC. This is a positive for BC, in my opinion. Davis was given every chance to take the starting QB job for next year and even though he wasn't the best QB in the Spring, he was still being touted as the starter by coach Spaz. While all of this is happening, he doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to go to class and give a little effort? People like that who fold under minimal pressure are not people who I want being the starting QB on my football team. This is what many people call addition by subtractiong. Now its time to see if Justin Tuggle, Codi Boek or Billy Flutie can step up and prove they deserve to be starting this year.

BC also grabbed another commitment for the 2010 class in 5'10" Wide Reliever James McCaffrey from BB&N High School here in Massachusetts. McCaffrey may not be the biggest wide out but he sure can fly and everything I have heard about him is he works his butt off too. Good to see a local kid commit to BC and with such a good group of recruits from Massachussetts in the 2010 class, lets hope Spaz can keep most of them here!

The Globe is actually doing some good writing on BC of late. Their latest is a recap of BC's NCAA tournament play.

They also have a good breakdown of the Davis transfer and the remaining pieces left at quarterback for the Eagles. Looks like they are doing everything possible to keep their paper alive by sucking up to the locals.

Bill over at Eagle in Atlanta has a nice piece on the media coverage of the BC Baseball team becuase of their good tournament showing.

BC vs. Army Preview

Hey, they played 3+ games yesterday and if they want to stay alive they are going to need to win 2 games today. BC had the unfortunate draw of having to play Army after losing less than 11 hours ago in the 25th in but here is my preview of the game.

The Eagles, who are running out of pitchers will toss:
John Leonard (1-4, 7.24)

Leonard has an inflated ERA and a bad record because he struggled heavily for the first half of the year but he has been much better in the second have pitching pretty well and earning Coach Aoki's trust. Leonard is going to need a HUGE outing today to save the BC bullpen after last night and to give them a chance to play Texas again.

BC will probably run out the same lineup but they may have Tony Sanchez DH and have Harry Darling catch this game. Sanchez had the misfortune of squatting for 25 innings behind the plate last night. Here is my lineup projection:
CF Robbie Anston .358 1 HR 29 RBIs
2B Matt Hamlet .311 0 HR 11 RBIs
DH Tony Sanchez .355 14 HR 48 RBIs
3B Mickey Wiswall .318 14 HR 62 RBIs
1B Mike Belfiore .286 11 HR 60 RBIs
SS Barry Butera .333 4 HR 34 RBIs
C Harry Darling .292 0 HR 13 RBIs
RF Andrew Lawrence .320 3 HR 19 RBIs
LF Mike Sudol .275 6 HR 28 RBIs

The Eagles keys to victory for this afternoon's game are:
1. Pitching: The Eagles have taxed Mike Belfiore and Chris Kowalski out of the pen so they are going to need to have guys such as Leonard to step up today and have HUGE performances.
2. Hitting: The Eagles looked ugly at the plate last night and need to get the bats going against the Black Knights.
3. Execution: The Eagles we unable to steal, hit and run and most important sacrifice bunt yesterday against the Longhorns and if they want to win they need to execute them to perfection.

The Eagles are going to have a tough time coming out to play today after such a draining physical and mental defeat and are going to need to score early and often to get over the loss quickly, if they want any chance of winning. The Eagles most definitely want a rematch against the Longhorns and hopefully the can win today and get one.

The Army Black Knights look to take advantage of the long, tiring game the Eagles played last night and win to move on. The Black Nights are a pesky club that don't go away which is something the Eagles would love for them to do but it just won't happen.

The Black Knights will throw:
Kirk Porter (6-3, 4.19)

Porter is their 3rd starter who missed some of the beginning of the year after have torn labrum surgery. He is a ground ball pitcher who has a NASTY breaking ball. The Eagles need to work the count against him and try to get him out of the game early.

The Black Knights will probably roll the same lineup today against the Eagles:
2B Zach Price .347, 0 HR, 24 RBIs
CF Andy Ernesto .307, 3 HR, 38 RBIs
SS Clint Moore .391, 10 HR, 60 RBIs
DH Joey Henshaw .388, 12 HR, 70 RBIs
1B Kevin McKague .387, 6 HR, 42 RBIs
3B J.P. Polchinski .277, 7 HR, 32 RBIs
RF Kyle Fleming .288, 6 HR, 34 RBIs
LF David Darnell .250, 1 HR, 11 RBIs
C J.T. Watkins .256, 2 HR, 28 RBIs

The Black Knights keys to victory are:
1. Getting to the Bullpen: The Eagles bullpen is taxed and the sooner they can get to the Eagles pen the better for them. The need to take advantage of the 25 inning game BC just played.
2. Hitting: They are a big hitting club and need to continue that today against BC in order to have a chance at a rematch with Texas.
3. Pitching: They have gotten good pitching thus far in the tournament, giving up on 7 runs so far and they need to continue that against the struggling BC lineup.

This game should be very interesting. Army has the distinct advantage of not having had played a 25 inning game, 11 hours ago and needs to use that to its advantage. While BC has the confidence of know that they can play with anyone by almost being the #1 overall seed in the nation last year. GO EAGLES!

BC vs. Texas Recap

Well I am pretty sure I can do this in a few words, such as TWENTY-FIVE INNINGS, but it is much more deserving of a bigger and better look. The Eagles lost a heart breaker, 3-2, against the #1 overall seeded Texas Longhorns at the Longhorns home stadium in 25 innings. Sure it is disappointed to lose, but there is this feeling of extreme pride and accomplishment after this game. I mean the huge underdog Eagles come into Texas' home stadium push them to the brink of elimination, shut them down for 23 innings and end up losing it on a wild pitch that was inevitable with a catcher who had been squatting behind the plate for 25 innings. I mean sure BC could have won and it would have been much more satisfactory but losing kind of puts a game like this into perspective. Each closer when a complete game (9+ innings), Outfielders player all 3 positions, Pitchers hit and run, infielders played the outfield, umpires throw out players when it wasn't necessary, there was 3+ games played in 1 game, a ton of records were broken. Just a ridiculous game and one that the players on both sides of the ball will never forget and neither will I nor the rest of college baseball.

Some epic pitching performances tonight by both teams and that is really the story of the game so I will tell you about them. Chance Ruffin, the Texas starter threw 6.1 innings of 5 hit, 2 run baseball while Pat Dean, the BC starter, tried to one up him and threw 7 innings of 9 hit, 2 run baseball. But that wasn't it, the Texas closer, Austin Wood, came in threw 13.0 innings of scoreless, 2 hit baseball while throwing 12.1 hitless innings aswell. BC closer almost matched Wood step for step throwing 9.2 innings of 3 hit, scoreless baseball in relief. The Eagles ended up using 7 pitchers while the Longhorns tried to make their kids arms fall off by using only 3 pitchers. The Eagles had 16 chances to end it at plate but Texas pitching was too good and the BC hitting looked off. However, It was a remarkable game that I hope I get a chance to watch again in my life because it was that good.

I will have my BC-Army Preview up momentarily! Go Eagles!

Austin Regional: #3 Boston College vs. #2 Texas State Preview

Boston College comes into the NCAA tournament for the first time in 42 years and it has a very tough matchup ahead of them. In fact, the last time the Eagles made the NCAA tournament in 1967, current head coach Mik Aoki wasn't even born yet. The Eagles will face the Bobcats of Texas State (41-15), an at-large bid out of the Southland conference, at the University of Texas' UFCU Disch-Falk Stadium in Austin, Texas. But Coach Aoki is taking the difficult task at playing in the #1 overall national seed's homefield in stride saying to the Globe this morning, "We're excited about playing games at the University of Texas with its great tradition," said Aoki yesterday before the Eagles went through their final practice session before flying to Austin this morning. "It's truly college baseball royalty." The Eagles are going up against the high powered Bobcats offense and are going to need some stellar pitching this weekend to have any chance at all. I have done some scouting on the Bobcats and feel I have enough info on the team to give you guys a good preview of the game on Friday at 2 PM EST.

The Eagles are coming off a great showing at the ACC tournament going 2-1 while beating Georgia Tech handily and blowing out Miami. They Eagles have 2 very solid pitchers at the top of their rotation and could go with either one of them against Texas State, My guess is they go with Senior Captain J.B. MacDonald, because they are going to need Pat Dean in a tough game vs. Texas is they win OR in a must win game if they lose.

Here are the possible BC Pitchers for the weekend:
Pat Dean 6-4, 3.36
JB MacDonald 5-7, 4.70
Mike Dennhardt 5-1, 4.97
John Leonard 1-4, 7.24

The Eagles key pitchers out of the Bullpen are:
Mike Belfiore 5-1 2.15 8 saves in 25 apperanaces
Kevin Moran 5-2 2.84 0 saves in 23 apperanaces
Nate Bayuk 0-0 3.38 1 save in 29 apperanaces

The Eagles will expect to go into the game with the same lineup they used in their last two ACC tournament games:
1. CF Robbie Anston .358 1 HR 29 RBIs
2. 2B Matt Hamlet .311 0 HR 11 RBIs
3. C Tony Sanchez .355 14 HR 48 RBIs
4. 3B Mickey Wiswall .318 14 HR 62 RBIs
5. 1B Mike Belfiore .286 11 HR 60 RBIs
6. SS Barry Butera .333 4 HR 34 RBIs
7. DH Harry Darling .292 0 HR 13 RBIs
8. RF Andrew Lawrence .320 3 HR 19 RBIs
9. LF Mike Sudol .275 5 HR 25 RBIs

With John Spatola .304 3 HR 23 RBIs, being the only somewhat reliable player off the bench to help the Eagles if need be.

The Eagles are know to be a small ball team and according to one Texas fan, "The Disch (UFCU Disch-Falk Field) might be the most pitcher friendly park in America. The infield is very slow, designed that way for the way the Longhorns like to play small ball with a lot of sacrifice bunts and sigles and doubles rather than trying to hit the long ball.

As stated above, the prevailing winds also tend to keep balls in the ball park. Your only real hope to conisistently hit the ball out of the park is to drive the ball low and hard down either line. If it gets up in the air, particularly betrween left and right center, its going to die."

Which may benefit Texas BUT it also benefits the Eagles because they aren't a team who will out slug you. It has been well documented that coach Mitch Aoki's philosophy is score one run an inning usually through sacrifices and small ball seeing as the Eagles are 3rd in the nation in sacrifice hits.

The Three Keys to the Eagles success this weekend are:
1. Starting Pitching: The Eagles are able to hit and score with the best of them so the key is going to be whether or not th Eagles can keep the other teams from scoring.
2. Tony Sanchez and Mickey Wiswall: These two are the best offensive players for the Eagles and are both going to need to step up even more for the Eagles to avoid losing 2 games.
3. Winning Game 1: Teams who lose game 1 don't usually move on because you then usually have to win 4 games in a row in order to advance to the Super Regionals.

The Texas State Bobcats, as I said before have a high powered offense that has lead them all year through their conference and earned them an at-large bid in this tournament. The Bobcats were the regular season champions in the Southland conference, but were upset in the Conference Tournament by Sam Houston State in the title game. The Bobcats may not play in the ACC like the Eagles, but they have a very good game and are a great matchup for the Eagles.

The Bobcats have a very good ace in Kane Holbrooks, but they may choose to risk it and try to win game 1 with their second starter, Zach Tritz, who isn't nearly as good as Holbrooks.

The possible starters for the Bobcats are:
Kane Holbrooks 10-1 3.34
Brian Borski 7-3 3.89
Zach Tritz 8-2 4.75

With these guys out of the Bullpen:
Tyler Brundrige 3-1 3.42 3 saves in 32 appearances
Michael Russo 4-2 3.86 6 saves in 23 appearances
Lance Loftin 3-0 3.09 1 save in 20 appearances

The Bobcats have a very high powered offense and look to keep that going into their first NCAA tournament since 2000:
1. RF Tyler Sibley .369 10 HR's 38 RBI's
2. CF Bret Atwood .373 1 HR 30 RBI's
3. 1B Paul Goldschmidt .353 17 HR's 85 RBI's
4. DH Keith Prestidge .370 7 HR's 49 RBI's
5. LF Spenser Dennis .408 6 HR's 49 RBI's
6. C Ben Theriot .346 6 HR's 36 RBI's
7. 2B Kyle Livinstone .322 5 HR's 32 RBI's
8. 3B Jordan Kopycinski.298 1 HR 8 RBI's
9. Jason Martinson .302 7 HR's 39 RBI's

They also have two reliable players and hitters off the bench that they can use at any time to replace anyone in the lineup in Lance Lofton .304 6 HR's 30 RBI's and Kyle Bubitza .299 6 HR's 21 RBI's.

The Bobcats three keys to this tournament will be:
1. Paul Goldschmidt: He is probably the best hitter in this regional and the Bobcats offensive production is usually based around him.
2. Pitching: The Bobcats can hit with the best of them but they aren't very deep in pitching. They did well in the Southland but things are much different facing teams from the ACC and Big XII.
3. Confidence: Some Southland conference teams may come in against ACC and Big XII teams, but if they Bobcats want to win they need to come in believing they can win.

This team is pretty solid and the coach from Lamar stated this might be the best team in Southland Conference history. These guys play the game right and enjoy playing together. The Eagles and the Bobcats look to matchup very well and should be a GREAT game tomorrow.

Go Eagles!

Q&A with Travis Everette

Travis Everatte is an associate with Rivals.com who was there to specifically help them blog about the ACC Baseball Championship. Therefore, I contacted him and asked him if he could answer a few questions for me and he was super kind and actually answered them for me!

TOTH: Can you explain to me and other BC fans what making the NCAA tournament after years of mediocrity and a move to such a tough conference means to the program?

TE: I think it is a huge step in the right direction for the players and coaching staff at Boston College. Coach Aoki and his staff have done an amazing job turning that program around and I have no doubt that they’ll continue to be competitive and give the rest of the league fits in years to come. Playing in the NCAA tournament will only add fuel to that fire.

TOTH: Why do you think Boston College and the ACC were looked at by the committee as lesser teams than the Big 12 and SEC schools?

TE: I don’t know that you could say that the ACC teams were looked at as lesser teams. I thought that everyone from the league who had a legitimate case for being included in the tournament was invited. I also think that the right teams got host spots and #1 seeds. I do think that UVA got a raw deal on their regional assignment being shipped all the way out to Irvine and having to face Stephen Strasburg in the first game. Duke’s RPI was a real killer but if you get down to it, I have little doubt that they are a better squad than either Baylor or Oklahoma State, so I guess you could make an argument that they were shorted, but it’s really not a strong argument because in my opinion none of those three should be in. All in all, I think the league got a pretty fair draw.

TOTH: Do you think the Eagles can use their success this year as a spring board for the program or is this just a fluke and they will go back to mediocrity after this year?

TE: I sort of answered this in question #1, but I’ll say it again: I think Boston College is going to be very competitive for a long while, particularly as long as the current coaching staff is in place. Coach Aoki was very impressive during the ACC tournament. That was the first time I”ve had the chance to interact face to face with him and I came away thinking that he was one of the more engaging coaches in the league. Also, make no mistake, Boston College is tremendously talented. They have some kids who can really compete with the best teams in the league. If they continue to mine that northeast talent pool, they will be just fine.

TOTH: What do you think has been the biggest key to Boston College's success this year? And do you think coach Mike Aoki should get more praise for what he has done in such a short time with this team?

TE: I don’t think there is any magic recipe to their success. They’re winning with talented kids playing hard and smart who are coached by a solid coaching staff. That will get it done every time.

TOTH: On to the NCAA tournament and the Austin Regional specifically. Since I and many BC fans haven't got to watch a ton of college baseball, what are some quick strengths and weaknesses for all of the teams in the Austin Regional?

TE: That regional should be one of the more interesting ones to watch. Obviously Texas is the #1 national seed for a reason. They are a tremendously talented team both on the mound as well as at the plate. I think the interesting thing about that regional is Texas State at #2. Honestly, that’s a pretty good draw for Boston College. The Bobcats simply aren’t a #2 seed in my opinion. I think that Boston College will be playing in the winner’s bracket game against Texas. That’s a game I would like to see.

TOTH: Some predictions. Who wins BC or Texas State in game 1? Then how many wins do you think BC can get? Finally, does BC have any chance at all at making it out of this regional?

TE: Boston College most definitely has a chance to advance. In this format, that winner’s bracket game is huge. If they can manage to get past Texas there, I think they have an excellent shot at advancement.

TOTH: Who wins the whole thing?

TE: It’s impossible to predict this tournament with any accuracy whatsoever, so I’ll just go with UNC. They’re the most experienced tournament team in the whole thing and I think it would be fitting for them to finally get it done with the least talented of their recent squads.

TOTH: Lastly, not neccessarily BC related but after the message the committee sent Rhode Island this week, what incentive is there for small northern schools to keep their baseball programs around?

TE: This committee was criminal in their treatment of Rhode Island. If I were a participating member, I would be absolutely embarrassed at the inclusion of Baylor and Oklahoma State while not having Rhode Island in the tournament. Of course they aren’t going to ever have a complete resume when compared to a warm weather school, but they did absolutely everything you could ask of them to improve their schedule and they won the majority of those southern games. I think it is an absolute travesty that they aren’t in. It does send the wrong message to northern schools. I do hope that the schools up there won’t allow the most biased chairman in the history of the committee (and that is saying something) to dissuade them from participating in our national pastime.

I would like to thank Travis so much for taking the time out of his day to answer my questions and give me something to write about on the blog! Go Eagles.

Eagle Links: 5/27

There is a nice little article in the Globe this morning about BC and their trip to the NCAA tournament.

The boys at BCInteruption had a nice Q&A session yesterday with the people at the College Baseball Blog about BC and their NCAA run.

Mickey Wiswall has been spectacular all season and the Herald is giving him some nice print time this morning. Good to see the Eagles are getting some nice publication in both papers after all getting to the NCAAs is a huge accomplishment.

BCI made a good point on Twitter. In the NCAA Lacrosse championship, when the attendance is down it is the economy. But when it comes to football and the ACC championship game, its the matchup and the BC fans.

Tony Sanchez gets a lot of love nowadays and it is a great thing for BC and their baseball program. The College Baseball Blog have him as one of the top 50 players in college baseball.

BC Hockey has got the insurance goalie that they were looking for incase Muse can't get back from his hip surgery before the season starts. The Eagles have added goalie Parker Milner from Waterloo and forward Brooks Dryoff from Phillips Andover.

I'll be back later with a Q&A with Rivals associate for the ACC baseball tournament, Travis Everette.

Memorial Day Eagle Links: 5/25

This afternoon the Eagles awaited word from the NCAA about whether or not they had made the 2009 NCAA Baseball Tournament. Well at about 12:36 they found out the good news that they were in the tournament but they also found out the bad news that they were in the #1 overall seed in the tournament, Texas' bracket. The Eagles finally made it back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1967, but they are going to need some stellar pitching from Pat Dean, JB MacDonald, Mike Dennhardt and John Leonard if they want to do anything in this regional. The Eagles will play the Texas State Bobcats (41-15) from the Southland conference on Friday at 2 PM EST.

Here is what the Bracket looks like:
#1 Texas (40-13-1)
vs.
#4 Army (34-19)

#2 Texas State (41-15)
vs.
#3 Boston College (33-24)

The bracket is a double elimination which gives the Eagles some flexibility but I feel if they want to have any chance they are going to need to win the first game against the big bats of Texas State on Friday. I will have my preview of that game up by Thursday night!

Ivan Maisel has gone crazy on us, he believes BC should have a football game against Auburn at Fenway Park. I think having a game at Fenway may be huge for BC as they definitely need to do something to boost casual fan interest here in Boston and I think a game at Fenway may just do that. What I'm not sure of is playing Auburn. 1. I don't think they would want to play us and 2. I'm just not sure an Auburn/BC matchup would be that interesting for the casual fan.

A little old but The College Hockey News believes the Boston is a shoe in to host either the 2013 or 2014 Men's Frozen Fours. They believe the TD Banknorth Garden could "submit a bid written in crayon comprised of nothing but “we want to host the Frozen Four” and they’d probably still be the favorites for 2013." Well let me send a box of crayons to the TD Banknorth Garden, I want the Frozen Four back in Boston!

There have been rumors from Pittsburgh that a BC wide receiver is going to transfer to Pittsburgh (thanks to Eagle All Access for the link). They have stated that it may be Colin Larmond trasfering to Pitt but Mike Farrell from Rivals.com shot down the rumors quickly by saying,

I've been hearing rumors that Larmond is the rumored transfer to Pitt and, first off, I don't think there's a transfer to Pitt unless it's Hayden-Martin and it's not Larmond according to numerous sources.

Just wanted to end these Larmond rumors before they gain momentum.

Mike Farrell

Alright, off to do some scouting and searching for video on the Texas State Bobcats baseball team!

Day 2 Recap and Miami Preview

Yesterday the Eagles defeated the #14th Ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 7-3 riding the coat tails of Mickey Wiswall at the plate. Wiswall was unbelievable yesterday. The Eagles had the bases loaded with no outs in the first and Mickey came through with the teams first clutch hit of the tournament. He singled to right and drove in Anston and Hamlet. But he wasn't done in the third he came up to the plate with Tony Sanchez on first and he absolutely BOMBED on to right about 20 rows up into the bleachers. Then he decided he wanted to show off some more but going deep over the Blue Monster to the opposite field. Yep Mickey drove in the Eagles first five runs and was a stabilizing force after the Yellow Jackets got it to within one in the 5th. Anston knocked in the other 2 runs for the Eagles in the 6th to finish the scoring for BC.

However, hitting wasn't the only strong point of the day for the Eagle on this day, senior captain JB MacDonald started off the game throwing 4 awesome scoreless innings but struggled a little in the 5th gaving up 3 runs. He finished a very strong outing with 3 runs on 5 hits in 5 innings pitched. But the star of the day on the mound was Relief pitched Kevin Moran. He was spectacular for the Eagles coming in, in the 6th and just shutting the Yellow Jackets down for 3 innings while only giving up 2 hits and striking out 2. Moran was the player of the day in my book, boy was I impressed. I was also impressed with Belfiore who came in, in the 9th and was unhittable. Throwing 94 MPH and lots of movement, its now wonder why he struckout 2 and is a real MLB prospect.

The Eagles were super impressive yesterday and may have just locked up an NCAA bid with the win but they still want to get a higher and higher seed so they have to come out and beat Miami today. The Eagles played Miami 3 times this year losing 2 out of 3 but in the one game they won was a blowout, 13-3. The Eagles need play like that again and they need a good offensive showing to go along with some great pitching by Pat Dean today if they want to have any chance of beating the Hurricanes.

Lets go Eagles!

Day 2 of ACC Baseball!

THE EAGLES UPSET THE YELLOW JACKETS!! WHAT A HUGE UPSET! This almost completely assures the Eagles of an NCAA tournament birth and they aren't done in the ACC tournament yet!

The Eagles won 7-3 today behind the bat of Mickey Wiswall. 3-4, 2 Home Runs, 5 RBis. Wiswall had a brilliant game today. But the player of the game was relief pitcher Kevin Moran. WOW. He came in right after GT got it to 1 run and shut them down for 3 innings. He only gave up 2 hits and no runs. Spectacular. Definitely of the player of the game.

I'll give my full recap later on today. Right now the Eagles got to root hard for the Hurricanes vs. the Seminoles because if the Seminoles get to 2-0, the Eagles are eliminated. So lets go Canes!

BC Baseball and ACC Tournament

The Eagles made a ton of mental mistakes yesterday playing FSU. The coaches sent Tony Sanchez on a single to left from second where he got thrown out at home. So instead of having the bases loaded and 1 out, they had men on 2nd and 3rd with two outs and the next batter hit a groundball up the middle that Sanchez definitely would have scored on. The Eagles ended up losing 7-2 but at the time it was only 2-1 and it might have changed the game.

The Eagles play GT today at Noon on NESN and they will try to keep their ACC tourny and NCAA tournament hopes up.

JB MacDonald is on the mound today and he needs to have a huge outing for the Eagles today!

LETS GO EAGLES!

#8 Boston College vs. #1 Florida State

Our 8th seeded Boston College Eagles are slated to take on the 1st seeded Florida State Seminoles today in the first day of the 2009 ACC baseball tournament.

Boston College Eagles (31-23, 13-15)
Starting Pitcher: John Leonard (1-3, 7.24 ERA)
Leonard is the 5th Starter for the Eagles and they just hope he is able to go out there and give a few solid innings and keeping the Eagles in the game. If Leonard is able to keep the game close, that bodes well for the Eagles as they have the offensive ability to pull off the early upset in the tourament.

Projected Lineup (Subject to Change):
CF Robbie Anston - (.366, 1 HR, 25 RBIs)
LF Andrew Lawrence - (.326, 3 HR, 18 RBIs)
C Tony Sanchez - (.353, 14 HR, 47 RBIs)
3B Mickey Wiswall - (.311, 12 HR, 57 RBIs)
1B Mike Belfiore - (.286, 11 HR, 59 RBIs)
SS Barry Butera - (.330, 4 HR, 33 RBIs)
2B Garrett Smith - (.297, 1 HR, 25 RBIs)
DH Mike Sudol - (.270, 5 HR, 20 RBIs)
RF John Spatola - (.304, 3 HR, 7 RBIs)

Florida State Seminoles (40-14, 19-9)
Starting Pitcher: Sean Gilmartin (10-2, 3.71 ERA)
Gilmartin is the ace of the Seminoles staff and has been dominate all year holding opponent hitters to a .222 batting average against him. He has the ability to shutout the best of the best offenses. The Seminoles are hoping for a strong and long outing from him which would mean a great start and hopefully a win. The Eagles need to get him to early and often if they want a chance to win this game.

Projected Starting Lineup (Subject to Change):
CF Tyler Holt - (.402, 5 HR, 25 RBIs)
SS Stephen Cardullo - (.370, 10 HR, 37 RBIs)
LF Mike McGee - (.363, 16 HR, 65 RBIs)
2B Jason Stidham - (.340, 9 HR, 57 RBIs)
3B Stuart Tapley - (.301, 13 HR, 53 RBIs)
C Rafeal Lopez - (.298, 4 HR, 26 RBIs)
RF Ohmed Danesh - (.275, 5 HR, 29 RBIs)
DH Tommy Oravetz - (.267, 6 HR, 28 RBIs)
1B Jack Posey - (.222, 5 HR, 28 RBIs)

The Seminoles are the ACC champions but the Eagles have beaten them twice this year. They need to put together a great pitching performance and a great offensive performance. The Eagles are going to need their best performance of the year in order to take this one and have any chance at making to 2009 NCAA Baseball tournament. GO Eagles!

Eagle Links: 5/20

The best news of the is Comcast has decided to add ESPNU!!! Which is great news for all of us BC fans. We can now watch Football games, Basketball games AND hockey games along with a ton of other college sports. This is just awesome for someone who has missed a ton of games because I had to deal with Comcast.

There is a great read on ESPN.com right now about Matt Ryan and what he is doing for the Falcons and their fans.

Now I wasn't sure about President Obama before today. Obama is taking shots at Notre Dame football. My respect for him just skyrocketed.

Thats all I got for you guys today but I am working on putting together a preview for the Eagles game today with Florida State in the ACC Baseball Tourament.

Eagle Links: 5/19

The Globe's interview with Mark Herlizh revealed that he is starting Chemotherapy today. This is the beginning of the LONG and hard fight for Mark. Once again, Get well Mark!

The ACC Journal previews Division "A" in the ACC Baseball tournament that includes our Eagles. He explains that going winless could and would most likely kill BC's chance at an at large NCAA tournament bid.

Four Eagles were named to the All-ACC teams yesterday. Tony Sanchez was the lone Eagle on the All-ACC First team, while Robbie Anston, Mike Belfiore and Mickey Wiswall were on the Second team. The Eagles will start play in the ACC baseball tournament on Wednesday at 4:00 vs. Florida State.

Check out this great Herzlich interview with ESPN a few days ago!

LETS GO EAGLES TOMORROW! BEAT THE SEMINOLES!

Eagle Links: 5/15

Herzlich is trying his best to make this deadly and horrible news and turn this into an good thing (somehow). He is doing his best to be an inspiration to others. Go Mark! You know you have everyone in the US on your side!

There has been an outpouring of support for Mark. Some at Maize n Brew, The Smoking Musket, Gobbler Country, CollegeGameBalls, TechSuperfans! and more! Just search the internet for Mark Herzlich and you will see.

The Boston College Eagles baseball team is still fighting for an NCAA birth but they are no longer fighting for an ACC tournament birth. They beat the #4 North Carolina Tar Heels yesterday, 3-1 to clinch their first ever ACC tourny bid. However, today they are going to lose after JB MacDonald was able to follow it up giving up 10 runs on 12 hits today.

BC Sailing continues to dominate the college circut, earning their second consectuative conference title.

The move to the ACC

In response to the link I posted earlier about the West Virginian writer saying that the BC move to the ACC hasn't worked, I am going to list the pros and cons of being in the ACC vs. the Big East.

The first few years of being in the ACC have been very good to the Eagles there have been much more pros then cons. Here they are:
Pros:

1. More Revenue
2. Better competition
3. Better bowls (although we may never get selected to them)
4. More and Better Recruits (although our former coach didn't help this last year)
5. Improvement in our sports outside of Football and Basketball
6. Better TV contract
7. Better places to watch BC play an away game
8. More National Exposure

Cons:

1. A lot of Travel
2. Bowls prefer lesser teams because of the amount of travel we have to do.

Then there is the Big East. I am going to give some hypothetical cons towards being in the New Big East.
Pros:

1. Less Travel
2. More Natural Rivals
3. Play good old basketball Rivals such as St. Johns, Georgetown, Villanova and Providence
4. Being at the top of the conference year in and year out.
   

Cons:

1. Playing UConn
2. Less money in our pockets
3. Weaker competition in Football
4. WAY to many teams in Basketball
5. Lesser Bowls
6. Less appeal to new recruits
7. No way BC gets the money they have from the ACC to do their current expansion project.

So in review, there isn't much that makes the Big East more appealing to Boston College than the ACC. The move to the ACC has been a HUGE success for the Eagles thus far and BC will not be switching conferences again any time soon. No matter how hard the members of the Big East was them too.

Eagle Links: 5/10

Sorry its so late but I was out all day so here we go.

The Globe has a nice little interview with from BC Eagle Hockey Star Patrick Eaves, currently playing in the playoffs with the Carolina Hurricanes.

This Michigan paper has an interesting tidbit about Joe Boisture, who is going to be playing in the Army All-American game next fall.

Mike Belfiore's walk off grand slam gave the Eagles the win over Le Moyne College this afternoon. The Eagles are still in contention for a spot in the NCAA Baseball tournament.

Mark Herzlich gets some high national praise. USA Today lists him as the #4 Senior prospect in the nation. Looks like it was a good idea for Herzy to stay in school!

Thats about it for today! Hopefully there will be some more BC news tomorrow!

BC Sports Rundown

Baseball played a 3 game series with Miami (FL) this week and struggled until yesterday, where Pat Dean pitched a gem for the Eagles. The Eagles lost the first two games of the series until Dean's brilliant preformance, where the Eagles won 13-3. Dean threw 7.0 innings of 4 hit, shutout baseball and Barry Butera and Mark Belfiore led the offense again. The Eagles are now 29-19 overall and 12-13 in the ACC. They are firmly in the ACC tournament right now in the 8th slot, a half game behind Duke and two and a half games in front of Georgia Tech. The Eagles play 2 versus Lemoyne this weekend at Shea Field, then UConn again on Tuesday.

On to the NFL Draft, only two Eagles got drafted last weekend, B.J. Raji (9th to the Packers) and Ron Brace (41st to the Patriots).

Pats coach Bill Belichick had some good words about the BC defense. He said, “BC has a good system defensively,” he continued on to say “It’s a big transition to the NFL, that goes without saying. But in relative terms, (Brace has) probably had as good a preparation for it as anybody else had in college football.” Send that to all of BC's recruits!

Although BC didn't get many draft picks, many of their players have latched on with NFL teams (either as signings or with tryouts):
Robert Francois signed with the Vikings
Brandon Robinson signed with the Eagles (the NFL kind)
Kevin Akins and Brian Toal (two supposed tweeners) have gotten tryouts with the Jets
Ryan Purvis signed with the Buccaneers and is reunited with Coach Jags

Hopefully Chris Crane and Clif Ramsey can latch on somewhere and get a fair shot!

Some other big news for BC football this weekend was BC got another recruit to nab their third of the year already. Please welcome OL Seth Betancourt to the 2010 Eagles! Betacourt joins QB Joe Boisture and LB Kevin Pierre-Louis on the commit list!

Last but not least the Men's Basketball team is going to play in the Paradise Jam down in the U.S. Virgin Islands to start the year next year! Another year, another preseason tournament for BC!

I'm back

Sorry for the lack of posts folks, I have been very, very busy with school and work.

Lets update the baseball teams results:
After a huge win vs. Clemson in the first game of the series, they ended up dropping both games of the double header. In the first game they lost they lost 7-6 in a really close one and Clemson came back from behind to win 5-3.

This week the Eagles got back to their winning ways. They beat Northeastern on Tuesday at home 11-2 behind the 6 scoreless innings on the mound from Pat Dean. Mike Belfiore continued his remarkable year at the plate with a solo homerun. The Eagles then traveled down to Storrs, Connecticut to face the Huskies from UConn. The Eagles were down 4-3 entering the 9th and they came back behind the bat of Junior Tony Sanchez went 3-for-4 with two homers and three RBI for the Eagles, as they pulled off a 5-4 victory.

The Eagles host the NC State Wolfpack for three day series starting tomorrow.

In other news B.J. Raji might be in big trouble. It is being reported that he failed a drug test at the combine. They are also saying that he tested positive for marijuana at BC too. I have never heard that but this will hurt him ginormously and cost him millions of dollars. Hopefully he slips to the Patriots though!

In other news the BC Men's Tennis team is ranked for the first time ever. Congrats to them.

The Women's basketball made a great run to the Final Four of the WNIT. Unfortunately, they lost to South Florida in very good game, that ended up looking more lopsided then it really was.

With Spring Ball underway there is a 3 way competition going for the starting job. However Spaz isn't very impressed. He says that they all need "practice." Well it is good that there is a lot of time until the season starts but it is never good when the QBs are struggling.

Baseball Results and Other Links

The Eagles baseball team started that week off the right way with a great performance at Hartford. BC scored 4 runs in the top of the 9th to grab the 8-4 victory lead by the brilliant performance on the mound from Pat Dean (7.0 innings, 1 ER). The Eagles bats were also great, lead by Mickey Wiswall who had 3 RBIs, Andrew Lawrence who had 2 RBIs and Mike Belfiore who had the game winning double in the ninth to give the Eagles the win.

BC Baseball then struggled at Holy Cross yesterday. Losing 8-2 to the Crusaders in an all around bad game. Mike Belfiore and Micky Wiswall did all they could at the plate, knocking in the Eagles only 2 runs but that wasn't enough. Taylor Lasko struggled in the start pitching on 2.2 innings, giving up 5 hits and 3 runs. Although the Eagles struggled Matt O'Brien was a brightspot out of the pen, pitching 2.0 scoreless innings.

Other Links:
The Women's Basketball team put away BU in their second round game in the WNIT on Monday. The Eagles won 68-53, lead by usual suspects Carolyn Swords and Stefanie Murphy. The go on to play St. John's in New York tonight in the 3rd round.

Nick Petricki's tenure is done at BC. He has signed with the San Jose Sharks' AHL team, the Worchester Sharks. Petrecki had a brilliant year as a freshmen at BC, being on the of backbone's to the national championship team but he didn't have a very good sophomore year. Petrecki played undisciplined and was very inconsistant.

The Men's Basketball team is looking to play a familiar foe. Villanova is a great program and would be a great addition to BC's non-conference schedule.

Heather Dinich of ESPN talks with Montel Harris about the BC offense. Some good stuff in their about the new offense the Tranquill is trying to implement at BC.