BC tags Packer to even series

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — “You’ve gotta pull this guy.”

Even a Boston College fan could hardly bear to watch Virginia pitcher Matt Packer take a pounding from Eagles hitters in the eighth inning Saturday afternoon.

After entering in the seventh with a one-run lead, the struggling southpaw was clobbered for four runs in the eighth as Boston College evened the weekend series with No. 13 Virginia with a 9-6 victory at Eddie Pellagrini Diamond at Shea Field.

“[Packer] keeps battling. Things just aren’t going his way right now,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “At some point the game will come around to him. It is what it is. He’s just gotta keep grinding it out.”

O’Connor’s advice for Packer might as well apply to the entire Virginia team. All seven of the team’s losses and one tie in conference play have come after the Virginia starting pitcher left the game with a lead or a tie score.

For the 2008 ERA-title winner Packer, the loss dropped him to 1-4 on the season and ballooned his ERA to 5.47.

Packer entered with two outs in the seventh and the score 5-5, and retired Mickey Wiswall to maintain the deadlock. The Cavaliers (29-8-1, 10-7-1 ACC) then added a run in the eighth to give Packer the lead.

The trouble began for Packer as the bottom of the eighth began, as he walked the first two batters he faced. Garrett Smith followed with a perfectly placed bunt to the third base side, which Packer fielded and attempted to shuffle from his glove to third, but the soft throw was well late.

Mike Sudol then knocked in the tying run with a sacrifice fly, and nine-hole hitter Brad Zapenas — who went 3 for 4 on the day — followed with an RBI double to give BC (24-14, 10-8) a 7-6 lead.

With runners on second and third and one out, Packer recovered to strike out leadoff man Robbie Anston. With two outs, though, Aoki then elected to pinch-hit right-handed Anthony Melchionda for John Spatola against Packer. Melchionda knocked a groundball up the middle to score two more runs.

“We’re up 7-6, and it’s a question of, hey do we play defense at this point and keep Spatola, the lefty, in there, or do we try to work to extend [the lead],” BC coach Mikio Aoki said. “[Melchionda] came up with a really big hit.”

The Cavaliers initially held a 5-3 lead with starter Andrew Carraway still toeing the mound in the seventh, but saw that lead evaporate as well. Sudol and Zapenas started the inning with back-to-back singles, and Anston followed with a sacrifice bunt to put them into scoring position.

O’Connor then removed Carraway in favor of lefty Neal Davis to face lefthanded Andrew Lawrence. Davis’ 0-1 delivery, however, landed in the dirt and scooted through the legs of catcher John Hicks, scoring one runner and moving the other to third. Lawrence then chopped a ground ball to Tyler Cannon at shortstop; Cannon charged initially, but then backed up to play the big hop, lost his balance as he fielded the ball and fell as the tying run scored and Lawrence reached safely.

“[Carraway’s] had a lot of hard luck this year where he’s left the games winning and we haven’t been able to close it down for him,” O’Connor said.

The defeat came in spite of Danny Hultzen’s second consecutive game with a homerun and in fact the second of the freshman’s career, as he popped a 3-2 fastball over the right-centerfield wall to give Virginia a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Hultzen also knocked in Virginia’s fourth run with an RBI-double in the fifth to break a 3-3 tie.

For Boston College, the win improved its record to 24-14 overall and 10-8 in conference play.

Virginia and Boston College wrap up the series today at 1 pm. Robert Morey is scheduled to make his second consecutive Sunday start on the mound for Virginia.