DORCHESTER — Despite losing to Boston Latin School 2-1 on senior night, BC High coach Steve Healy didn’t see much from his team he didn’t like from Tuesday’s loss.
Instead, he praised the opponent for a clean game of baseball.
“I just thought Latin played really well,” Healy said. “They made a number of good defensive plays and the pitcher didn’t walk anybody. I’ll tip my hat to them for a job well done more than us having a bad game.”
In fact, there were only two errors committed the entire outing, both by Latin. It was a relatively clean game for both squads on both sides of the field.
Healy saw great production from his senior pitchers, despite their inexperience. Due to senior night, Healy opted to start the game with three seniors who have seldom pitched for the Eagles (10-8) this season.
Jake McConville got the start for BC High, his first start of the season. McConville stayed in for one inning and gave up one run.
Jameson Howard followed and held the Wolfpack (11-7) scoreless in the second inning. Yet, it was Brian Dunn’s performance in the third inning which started to shift the momentum for BC High.
In his first career appearance on the mound, Dunn walked the first three batters to load the bases with no outs. He struggled to find the zone, giving up two four-pitch walks. Yet, when the fourth batter stepped up to the plate, something seemed to click for Dunn.
He struck out the next two batters he faced and grounded out the third to escape the inning without giving up a run.
“He dug himself into a little bit of a hole and he found his curveball and just battled back,” Healy said. “It was great; it gave us a little bit of a boost there.”
After three innings of work, the three inexperienced pitchers held Latin to just one run and four hits.
“Those first three guys, the seniors, they don’t pitch a lot for us,” Healy said. “If you had said they were going to go three innings and only give up one run, I would have signed on for that deal.”
Yet, while the defense began to gain steam, the offensive failed to produce quality at-bats early in innings.
“It seemed like every time we got a guy on base there were two outs though,” Healy said. “We didn’t have much margin for error.”
Seniors Tommy O’Donnell and Jack Darcy seemed like the only Eagles to have success at the plate throughout the game.
Both notched two hits and O’Donnell ripped a double in the fifth inning — the Eagles’ only extra base hit of the night. Junior Max Ryan pinch-ran for O’Donnell and made his way home for the Eagles’ only score of the night.
Senior Jake Taylor was the last of the four BC High pitchers to see action on Tuesday night, closing out the final four innings of the match.
“(Taylor) was great,” Healy said. “He lives a little dangerously with some walks and hit-by-pitches, but his stuff is so good. When he’s in the zone, he’s just unhittable sometimes and we saw that tonight.”
While Healy believes Taylor had his best outing of the year against Latin, Taylor’s one earned run at the top of the fifth proved to be the final nail in the coffin.
Now, the Eagles have dropped three straight games heading into their penultimate game of the season on Friday against the 15-2 Plymouth North squad.
Healy knows they have a tough challenge in Plymouth North but welcomes it as the Eagles look to improve day by day.
“It doesn’t get any easier for us but that’s what you sign on for when you play baseball at BC High.” Healy said. “We don’t dodge anybody and we play the toughest schedule possible.”
