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Boston College Resetting Expectations With Strong Start

Boston College Resetting Expectations With Strong Start

Expectations outside the program for Boston College entering the season were low. The Eagles were coming off a season that saw them go 19-34 overall and just 5-25 in ACC play. They were picked last in the preseason ACC coaches’ poll.

A month into the season, however, the Eagles are flying high. They’re 12-2—the best start in program history—and this week entered the Top 25 at No. 18 following a 4-1 week that included a win at Tennessee and a series win at Virginia Tech. BC faces another difficult test this weekend, as it travels to Florida State (11-6, 2-1).

It’s March 16 and there’s still a long way to go this season, but expectations aren’t so low for the Eagles anymore. They look like a team that can compete in the ACC and beyond. BC hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2016 but it looks to have the potential this spring to end the drought.

Inside the Pete Frates Center, however, the expectations haven’t changed.

“If it’s not going to phase us when people don’t think we’re good, it can’t faze us when people think we’re good,” coach Mike Gambino said.

BC hasn’t been fazed by anything this season. After losing 9-0 on Opening Day at Pepperdine, it ran off 10 straight wins—half coming against teams that made the NCAA Tournament in 2022. It last weekend opened ACC play with a series win at Virginia Tech, which lost only one home series all of last year—in super regionals against eventual national runner-up Oklahoma. That series win came after the Eagles lost, 13-3, in the opener.

BC has yet to play a home game this season and just three of its 14 games have been at neutral sites. The Eagles have logged more than 8,000 air miles already this season—and still won’t play a home game until next Wednesday (weather permitting, their home opener has already been postponed once this season).

BC is simply going about its business and playing good baseball, no matter what gets thrown at it.

“There’s nothing crazy going on,” Gambino said. “We’re not hitting .370 as a team, we’re not pitching to an under 1.00 ERA.

“We’re throwing strikes, we’re situationally hitting, we’re making plays defensively. The feeling is this is replicable, that we can continue to do this. We don’t feel like we’re hot. The feeling is like we’re playing the way we can.”

BC’s stat sheet bears out that perception. The Eagles are hitting .273/.375/.445 and averaging 6.6 runs per game (140th nationally). Their pitching and defense…

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