BC in the 2010 ACC Baseball Tournament

As the 8th and final seed in the tournament, I can assure you that this will not be an easy ride. The 2009 Eagles came into this tournament as the very same seed and were a tiebreaker away from advancing to the championship game.

These are not your 2009 Eagles, however.

Boston College won their way into the field with a win on the final day of the regular season over Georgia Tech, but this team's pitching is, was, and will remain highly suspect. Furthermore, only half of BC's 14 ACC wins were against teams in this tournament, illustrating how BC fattened up on the bad teams.

Remember, this is not a tournament with a bracket. The 8 teams are divided into two divisions - A and B - where each team will play each other team once in a three-game round robin. The team with the best record in each pool at the end of the round robin plays for the ACC championship. Boston College sits in Division A and it looks like this:

BC will play each of those three teams. Here is a primer on those games:

Boston College vs. #1 Virginia
Initial reaction: Oh shit

Have we met?: Yes, and BC would probably rather they hadn't. Virginia swept the 3-game set in Charlottesville and outscored BC 22-5.

Offensive comparison: UVA .335 - 8.27 runs per game; BC .295 - 6.60 runs per game

Pitching comparison: UVA 3.48 ERA; BC 6.56 ERA

Analysis: Virginia is the best team in the country. Boston College is most assuredly not.

Chances of a BC win?: Virtually non-existent.

Boston College vs. #14 Miami
Initial reaction: Sigh

Have we met?: Yes, Miami won two of three games.

Offensive comparison: Miami .295 - 7.46 runs per game; BC .295 - 6.60 runs per game

Pitching comparison: Miami 3.58 ERA; BC 6.56 ERA

Analysis: The offenses are not far apart at all. The pitching is.

Chances of a BC win?: Minimal, though Pat Dean (if he pitches this particular game) has a tendency to shut this team down.

Boston College vs. #7 Florida State
Initial reaction: Please make it stop

Have we met?: Yes, Florida State won two of three games.

Offensive comparison: FSU .296 - 8.24 runs per game; BC .295 - 6.60 runs per game

Pitching comparison: FSU 4.46 ERA; BC 6.56 ERA

Analysis: Florida State looked kind-of beatable when they were in Boston not too long ago. Still, they'd be favored here.

Chances of a BC win?: Decent but less than 50-50.

Bottom line: This was a pretty bad draw for BC. The other division wouldn't have been too much better. All of the super-crappy ACC teams have been weeded out, and those were the teams which supplied many of BC's conference wins this year. The outlook is not very good. If BC is lucky, they'll steal one game out of three and go home.