The “No Pressure” Road Trip – BC Weekend Preview

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OK then.  So for a few weeks (at least) I’ve been dreading this series, as well as having to write this particular preview.  I haven’t exactly kept my good natured digs at BC and their prowess on the diamond to myself up until now and as such I’ve probably set it up such that karma will come back to bite the Pack big time this weekend.

And we all know how easily NCStateSh!t can work its way into places where it has no business anyway, so this weekend has me a bit nervous to be honest.

But since I believe in calling it like I see it, I won’t now go into the “Hey, BC isn’t all that bad after all” mode just to curry favor with the baseball Gods.  That would be disingenuous.  Plus there’s really no way to put perfume on this particular pig.  If that jinxes us and we drop 2 out of 3 in Chestnut Hill because of it, then so be it.

The Pack is playing pretty good ball right now having won seven straight and nine of their last ten.  Incidentally, this ten game stretch just happens to coincide with Trea Turner’s return from his ankle injury.

During that stretch, State has won two straight conference series, including last weekend’s sweep of VT to up their record to 25-10, 8-7 in conference, and move within striking distance of 1st place FSU (2gb) and 2nd place Clemson (1gb) in the Atlantic Division as the second half of the conference season comes into view.

Maryland and Wake are both still tied for 4th, and are both also fading fast, now six games behind division leader FSU, and four back of the 3rd place Wolfpack.

And then there’s BC.  So let’s do this I guess.

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bc-logoBoston College Eagles

6-26 (0-14 ACC; 6th ACC Atlantic)
2012: 21-34 (10-20; 6th ACC Atlantic)

Please let me preface the rest of this by saying I’m really kinda tired of piling on BC and I’ll be glad when this preview, and this weekend for that matter, is overwith.  I actually feel for BC and their players.  There’s not much that’s less fun than trudging through a season as badly as they have thus far, and knowing how bad you are.  After this weekend I’ll be pulling hard for BC to turn things around.

But this weekend they must be destroyed.

So, here goes nothing (Don’t worry, this won’t take long)….

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At The Plate

The Eagles are indisputably bad at the plate, both for average and power.  They’re batting only .207 as a team and have hit only 8 HRs all season.  They strike out a lot and don’t steal bases well.

They’re averaging only 3.22 runs per game.

BC has no hitters in the .300+ range (seriously…none are even close) so let’s take a look at a couple of their “highlight” guys I suppose.

John Hennesy (#10, Jr, 3B/2B) leads the Eagles in avg. (.268) and runs scored (13) and is second in RBIs (11).

Chris Shaw (#3, Frosh, OF/1B) leads the team in HRs (4) and RBIs (13) but bats only .147.

BC’s biggest basestealing threats are Tom Bourdon (#7, Jr, CF) with 4 in 4 attempts; and Gabriel Hernandez (#23, Frosh, 3B) with 5 out of 5.

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In The Field

As if BC’s offense wasn’t depressing enough, they have pitching to match.  Their team ERA is 6.69 and they’re giving up an average of 7.03 runs per game.  Opponents are batting .303 against them.  The semi-bright spots for BC’s staff are that they’ve not yielded as many HRs as one might think, having given up only 16 on the year; and they don’t hurt themselves (at least not too much) with an inordinate number of BBs.

BC’s scheduled starters for the weekend are:

Hunter Gordon (#26, Sr, RHP) – 0-3, ERA 3.52, 23 IP, 13 Ks, 5 BBs, 0 HRs, .281 against avg.

Eric Stevens (#22, Jr, RHP) – 0-7, ERA 5.76, 45.1 IP, 11 Ks, 20 BBs, 3 HRs, .351 against avg.

Andrew Chin (#28, Frosh, LHP) – 1-7, ERA 4.95, 36.1 IP, 28 Ks, 20 BBs, 1 HR, .303 against avg.

BC is a bit below average defensively with a .956 team fldpct.

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Links

No. 19 Wolfpack Travels to Boston College (GoPack.com)

Boston College Baseball Home (BCEagles.com)

Weekend Notes

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Games Schedule – Pitching Probables

  • 4/12 Friday 2:30pm – Carlos Rodon vs Hunter Gordon
  • 4/13 Saturday 1:30pm – Ryan Wilkins vs Eric Stevens
  • 4/14 Sunday 12pm – Brad Stone vs Andrew Chin

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Standings

(As Of April 10)
ATLANTIC DIVISION
School Conference Pct. Overall Pct.
Florida State 10-5 .667 27-6-0 .818
Clemson 9-6 .600 23-11-0 .676
NC State 8-7 .533 25-10-0 .714
Maryland 4-11 .267 18-15-0 .545
Wake Forest 4-11 .267 19-17-0 .528
Boston College 0-14 .000 6-26-0 .188
COASTAL DIVISION
School Conference Pct. Overall Pct.
North Carolina 12-2 .857 31-2-0 .939
Virginia 12-3 .800 30-4-0 .882
Georgia Tech 9-6 .600 24-9-0 .727
Duke 8-7 .533 21-14-0 .600
Virginia Tech 7-8 .467 22-12-0 .647
Miami 6-9 .400 22-14-0 .611

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As I mentioned a few days ago, the Pack will be trying to avoid becoming the first conference team this season to NOT sweep BC.  This is at least slightly misleading as BC has played all but one conference series on the road this year (Clemson swept them in Chestnut Hill last weekend).

Nonetheless, anything short of a series win would be a huge disappointment this weekend, even on the road.  Losing 2 out of 3 (or God forbid worse) would be very difficult to stomach and might make for some broken household items that I’ll have to replace.

That being said, despite how weak BC has been up to this point, it’s still baseball and anything can happen.  I just hope it doesn’t happen this weekend.  With Duke visiting FSU and Wake at Clemson this weekend, the Pack just needs to try to avoid losing any ground in a weekend when they are facing the league’s weakest opponent.

Anything else is gravy.

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About Wufpacker

A 2nd generation alumnus and raised since birth to be irrationally dedicated to all things NC State. Class of '88 and '92.

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43 Responses to The “No Pressure” Road Trip – BC Weekend Preview

  1. DC_wolf 04/12/2013 at 11:21 AM #

    Haha, “The No Pressure Road Trip”… Good stuff.

    Thanks for the detailed preview. Pack should be o.k., even if they don’t have their “A” game (maybe “B+”, though).

  2. Dr. BadgerPack 04/12/2013 at 11:22 AM #

    Nicely done on the writeup- and concluded in the manner the team should be thinking about the series, that being “win the series.”

    This is one of those games I hated coaching in years ago… on the road, in a cow pasture (no joke, my LFer stepped in cow dung one year), no lights, odd starting times… you get the picture. Here we go to BC with a 2:30 Friday start time (do they have freaking lights??) and no TV. Hopefully they still get excited.

  3. Wufpacker 04/12/2013 at 11:39 AM #

    Yep, no TV this weekend. Even ESPN3 wants no part of this one I guess.

    That being the case, as far as myself, I plan to be following remotely from poolside today. 802.11n WiFi is a freaking wonderful thing.

    Of course if we lose, the smartphone might end up taking a splash, so there’s always that risk.

  4. vtpackfan 04/12/2013 at 12:53 PM #

    Need a sweep. We have to keep within striking distance of FSU. Great for ACC seeding and an ACC Atlantic Title will garauntee a regional, and even give us a glimmer of hope as possible Super Regional Hosts. Getting ahead of the one game at a time, but for State to take it to the next level than we’ve got to get out of the third place in Atlantic Division Status Quo. You can only get there by mopping up the cellar dwellers.

  5. Dr. BadgerPack 04/12/2013 at 1:31 PM #

    Great… daggum double-header…

  6. Wufpacker 04/12/2013 at 1:38 PM #

    LOL…you beat me to it DBP.

  7. PackerInRussia 04/12/2013 at 3:35 PM #

    Come on, we’re the Wolfpack. What’s the worst that could happen?
    But seriously, those are some pretty bad stats for BC. Hard not to feel sorry for a team that is 0-for conference. Yikes. Don’t feel bad enough to want to give them any wins this weekend, though.

  8. graywolf 04/12/2013 at 4:56 PM #

    There was no pressure @ Wake either and that series did not turn our too well.

  9. Wufpacker 04/12/2013 at 5:55 PM #

    1) “No Pressure” was meant facetiously.

    and..

    b) We won the Wake series on the road. I’d say it turned out fine.

  10. Dr. BadgerPack 04/12/2013 at 8:07 PM #

    c) Won the Wake series on the road WITHOUT Turner.

    People wonder why I’m crotchety….

  11. Wufpacker 04/12/2013 at 11:23 PM #

    I feel your pain DBP, trust me.

  12. Wufpacker 04/13/2013 at 3:10 PM #

    OK, so that was a bit more adventurous than I would have cared for. Still goes down as a “W” though.

    Pack takes game one vs BC 6-5.

    I missed the first few innings so I’ll reserve comment re: Rodon, but his line doesn’t look great. Anybody got any insight on that? Starting to worry about that boy.

    Game two at approx. 3:40pm.

  13. Dr. BadgerPack 04/13/2013 at 3:14 PM #

    ^Since he had been throwing well… (and I had been worried about this since the DH was announced late): Gameday routine twice in a row. Gametime temperature in the low 40s. That’s not good news (temp) for a power pitcher, and two straight days of prepping for a start can throw a pitcher off (that’s why in MLB when a guy misses a start due to weather he pitches two days later, not the next day, in a lot of instances).

  14. Dr. BadgerPack 04/13/2013 at 3:19 PM #

    On an unrelated note, Rodon’s stuff may be too good- and it’s getting him into trouble- and it’s not his fault. I have been tracking the close pitches that break toward the hitter, especially with two strikes. I don’t think some of these umpires have seen stuff that good, and assume it can’t be (or they simply don’t see the pitch).

    I’d like to see Brian Kennedy behind the plate for Rodon down the road (he is an umpire). Kennedy was a very solid high school player, and was in MLB umpiring school (personal friend). He called the plate in the Villanova game, if I remember right.

  15. Wufpacker 04/13/2013 at 3:26 PM #

    That had occurred to me as well (regarding gameday routine two days running) but was hoping they had called it early enough yesterday that it wouldn’t affect him, but granted the time difference throws me off for that as well.

    IIRC now, it was probably no more than 2-3 hours before game time due to the earlier start time (which I’d also forgotten about) so yeah, hopefully that’s all it was today.

    Have to admit that when Sasser went 3-2 to Hernandez after getting ahead of him, then plunked him, then walked Cronin on four pitches, I got a sinking feeling and figured I had pretty well pissed off the baseball Gods by talking shit about BC, LOL.

  16. Dr. BadgerPack 04/13/2013 at 3:32 PM #

    ^Or maybe he just couldn’t get loose. Or feel his slider (the hard slider requires more pressure). I prefer a soft-tosser in butt-chilling cold weather.

    It’s a win- so I’m not going to dwell on it. But I will be watching Rodon more closely down the road- a fair weather start in Georgia next week should be a nice test of my theory (one of them).

  17. Wufpacker 04/13/2013 at 3:37 PM #

    Obviously having missed his innings today (and no video today anyway) I’m not basing this on today, but his previous outings I’ve been able to actually see it seems when he gets in a jam he’s overthrowing a bit and losing location.

    Am I completely off base in this (alleged) observation?

  18. DC_wolf 04/13/2013 at 3:38 PM #

    Yeouch, so that was barely their “B” game – thus, we have to sweat a cardiac comeback.

    Come on, guys – treat the conference games like the tourney. Take ’em seriously & think about seeding…

  19. Dr. BadgerPack 04/13/2013 at 3:46 PM #

    Wuf- For the most part he locates pretty well- he does miss on occasion but you will often hear “just missed” from the announcer. Austin also doesn’t move the glove on a lot of these borderline pitches. That means one of two things: the ump is missing it, or Austin is setting up off the plate. The VT start, the plate ump had a coke bottle set up as a strike zone for both pitchers; nobody got calls. This is a recipe for getting ripped, as 95 at a coke bottle isn’t actually that hard to hit (relative to 95 on a corner, of course).

  20. Dr. BadgerPack 04/13/2013 at 3:46 PM #

    I really need a blowout this game, or I am going to run out of beer… /)

  21. Dr. BadgerPack 04/13/2013 at 3:49 PM #

    Holy crap Austin is going to keel over… catching both ends of a double-dip SUCKS! For those who know me, of course I didn’t catch- but my brother did…

  22. Wufpacker 04/13/2013 at 4:00 PM #

    There ya go DBP, a nice beer conserving way to start off for Wilkins.

  23. Wufpacker 04/13/2013 at 4:11 PM #

    Perhaps I jumped the gun there.

  24. Wufpacker 04/13/2013 at 4:39 PM #

    That helps.

    Pack bats around in the 3rd, put up five.

    5-1 after 2 1/2.

  25. Dr. BadgerPack 04/13/2013 at 5:47 PM #

    Beer supply died nonetheless…

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