 The Eagles have won six of their last seven games and head into Wednesday's Beanpot final against Northeastern playing their best baseball of the year.
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By Nick Tarnoff
Asst. Sports Editor The Boston College Eagles baseball team will fight to defend its Beanpot title against the Northeastern Huskies baseball squad this Wednesday at Fenway Park. Last Thursday afternoon BC defeated the Harvard Crimson by a 5-2 score behind a dominant pitching performance from senior right-hander Ted Ratliff.
The Eagles will go into Wednesday's game against Northeastern on a five-game winning streak and having won seven of their past eight games - a string that started with a 6-3 win over Harvard on April 11.
In Thursday's tilt, the Crimson got to Ratliff in the bottom of the second to take a one-run lead - a lead that would be short-lived, however, as the Eagles came right back in the bottom of the inning and tallied three runs.
The scrappy Eagles played small ball, stealing bases, bunting, and getting timely hits. Jared McGuire, Joe Ayers, and Pete Frates all collected RBIs in the inning for the Eagles.
Harvard put a second run on the board in the top of the third, but that's all that Ratliff would yield to the Crimson, as he clamped down and only gave up two hits over the final six innings.
The senior pitcher racked up nine strikeouts and only walked one man on the way to collecting his fourth victory of the season and continuing his dominance of the Crimson.
BC would cling to a 3-2 lead until the eighth inning, when the team collected two more runs off of Crimson pitcher Dan Zailskas.
BC freshman catcher Tony Sanchez started the inning by singling to center, and moved to third on Eric Campbell's double down the left-field line.
Mike Augustine chased Sanchez home for the Eagle's fourth run of the game with a single to center.
Campbell scored the Eagle's fifth run of the game on McGuire's sacrifice fly to right, which gave McGuire his second RBI of the game.
Ratliff closed off the game by striking out the side in the ninth inning for his seventh, eighth, and ninth strikeouts of the game.
The Eagles head into Wednesday's game with a great deal of momentum following a weekend sweep over ACC rival Wake Forest.
2008 Woodie Awards
