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The Heights spring sports Preview 2016
C4-5,HOW MIKE GAMBINO’S RECRUITING PLAN FOR
BC BASEBALL IS FINALLY WORKING
C8, BC SOFTBALL’S ROAD TO REGIONALS
C2 & 3,BIRDBALL’S BEST BATTERY
MATES READY TO LEAD C6 & 7MANNELLY
AND MARGOLIS AIM TO BRINGA TITLE TO BC
THE HEIGHTS FEB. 25, 20162 SPRING SPORTS PREVIEW KING AND DUNN
Is Mike King even going to last three innings tonight?
Head coach Mike Gambino remembers pacing in the
dugout in the second inning of an April matchup with No.
18 North Carolina, thinking about an early exit for Boston College’s
top starter. King, his most reliable arm, led the ACC in walks allowed,
only surrendering 12 free passes all season, but he couldn’t seem to
fi nd the strike zone that night. And it looked like the Tar Heels were
going to make him pay.
With two outs and the bases loaded, the 6-foot-3 right-hander
walked another UNC batter—this time, on four straight pitches—to
put the Eagles in an early 1-0 hole. By now, Gambino was really
sweating: Every run matters, especially when facing the Tar Heels’
ace, Zac Gallen.
King is a Picasso on the rubber, painting the corners with his go-
to two-seam fastball that acts as a pseudo-sinker. His location is his
best tool, as he brushes the edges of the plate to bait hitters into easy
ground ball outs and strikeouts. He doesn’t miss.
Except for that night, when his fastball command was nowhere
to be found. So King adapted. Relying more heavily on his off -speed
and secondary pitches, he escaped the second-inning jam without
any further damage and went on to blank UNC for six more innings.
He didn’t yield another walk, and only allowed one runner past fi rst
base for the rest of the game. Th e complete game exhausted King for
102 pitches, and every ounce of eff ort he had to keep a lethal Tar Heel
off ense off the scoreboard on a night when he didn’t have his best stuff .
Even though BC lost 1-0—a fi tting microcosm for King’s season, dur-
ing which many solid outings resulted in undeserved L’s due to a lack
of run support—the performance was impressive nonetheless.
Although King has the potential for complete games every time he
takes the mound, nine innings won’t be the norm for the junior. Often,
he will need help closing the door in tight, low-scoring ballgames on
Friday nights. He’ll need an exclamation point to cap off his starts, a
back-end arm who can erase inherited runners and dodge late-game
scoring situations.
He needs Justin Dunn.
Before each game, Dunn, a Freeport, N.Y., native, listens
to Jay-Z as he starts his warm-up routine. Th e Brook-
lyn rapper’s iconic voice reminds him of Derek Jeter’s
face-carving, diving catch in the stands against the Red Sox. Or Mr.
November’s opposite-fi eld shot for the Yankees in Game 4 of the 2001
World Series. Or the pinstriped pitching staff of the early 2000s that
included Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Mike Mussina.
So naturally, when the Eagles’ closer takes the mound, he models
himself after…
“Pedro.”
Pedro Martinez? Th e Boston hero and notorious Yankee killer?
“I get that question a lot, actually,” Dunn said with a chuckle. “I
have to give credit to people where credit is due. His stuff is just so
electric, and if I can be anything remotely close to what he was, I think
I can do pretty well in this conference.”
King thinks “pretty well” is an understatement.
“He’s probably the best [closer] in the ACC,” King said. “I think his
off speed pitches are the best pitches I’ve ever seen. He’s not seen very
often, so to throw him out there for one inning, it’s untouchable.”
Dunn’s best pitch may be his slider, which ranges upwards of 85
mph—faster than most Major Leaguers’—and drops off the table
faster than you can say “whiff .”
Couple that with an electric fastball that sits at 95 mph (and has
been rumored to peak at 97), and the result is a fi lthy arsenal that
rivals some of the best closers in college baseball. Together, Dunn
and King—who both frequent 2016 MLB Draft prospect lists across
the Internet—are poised to lead a pitching staff that could carry
BC to its fi rst winning season since 2010 and a return trip to the
postseason in May.
If 2015 was King’s breakout season, then his Apr. 17 start against
Georgia Tech was certainly his standout gem.
King was a fi rst-inning single away from a no-hitter, going
the distance against the Yellow Jackets in just one hour and 52 minutes
and striking out eight. Th e Rhode Island native faced the minimum
number of batters and retired the last 17 hitters who stepped up to
the plate. Th e complete-game shutout earned him ACC Player of the
Week honors.
At his best, King has the two-seam fastball of Doug Fister and the
calculated command of a young Cliff Lee.
But the key to King’s success isn’t his body as much as his brain.
Associate head coach and pitching specialist Jim Foster has molded
the honor roll student into a Grade-A baseball mind, anticipating pitch
sequences based on the count and the type of hitter at the plate.
“He loves the pitcher that already knows what he’s going to call
prior to calling it,” King said of Foster.
For example, if King is facing a power hitter, he pitches him back-
wards—meaning he’ll spin a couple curveballs across the plate to start
an at-bat when the batter is looking for a fastball. If he gets ahead in
the count, King likes to keep the hitter off -balance with a two-seamer
that runs in on the hands of right-handed hitters and jams them before
they can bring the barrel to the ball.
Pitching sequences don’t always follow cookie-cutter guidelines,
though. Certain types of swings will dictate which part of the plate
King will attack, and the situation can aff ect pitch selection, as well. But
Foster, King, and junior catcher Nick Sciortino all know that.
Last year, BC’s battery and the pitching staff were on the same page
so often that Sciortino wouldn’t even have to put down a sign for King.
Th ey both knew what was coming.
When King and Sciortino are clicking like that, they know some-
thing else, too: the hitter doesn’t stand a chance. And when they aren’t
in sync, they have someone waiting in the wings to clean up any mess
that falls on his plate.
Not everybody can close.
Th ese are the words of Gambino, but they have been
echoed in dugouts across the country for years.
It’s not complicated, really. When one player messes up, the conse-
quences are usually negligible—striking out at the plate with runners in
scoring position or allowing an RBI double won’t cost the team a win.
For a closer, though, one small mistake is the diff erence between
life and death. It’s a job with enough pressure to ruin MLB careers, and
college students aren’t immune to it.
Last year, Dunn assumed the closer role less than a month into
the season and pieced together a nine-inning scoreless streak over a
two-week period in April. During the stretch, the righty fl ame-thrower
picked up a save in the Eagles’ Beanpot win over UMass, threw three
scoreless innings with three strikeouts at No. 18 North Carolina, and
struck out the side against Rhode Island to earn his fourth save of the
season.
Two weeks later, BC found itself clinging to a 1-0 lead in the fi nal
game of a series with ACC foe Virginia Tech, who had silenced the
maroon and gold lineup in the fi rst two games of the weekend bout.
Naturally, it called on Dunn in the ninth inning to seal the shutout
and send the Eagles home with something to show for their trip to
Blacksburg, Va.
Th e Hokies’ fi rst batter walked on fi ve pitches, placing the tying run-
ner on fi rst base with Virginia Tech’s cleanup hitter, Brendon Hayden,
set to step into the box. After Dunn missed with a fi rst-pitch ball, he
had to return to the zone and challenge the Hokie slugger. Hayden
made him pay.
Th e payoff pitch was hammered over the right fi eld fence and off
the scoreboard, sending Hayden into a trot around the diamond as BC
realized the implications of the two-run walk-off homer. Th ree consecu-
tive losses at the hands of Virginia Tech dropped the Eagles’ winning
percentage down to .500 for the season, and each loss seemed so easily
avoidable. All they needed were three outs.
Of course, Dunn can’t be blamed. His command briefl y escaped
him, and the count forced him to sling a strike over the plate to a great
hitter. Hayden took advantage of it. Sometimes, you just have to tip
your cap to the other team.
But Dunn couldn’t shake it off . After Gambino gave him nearly
two weeks to clear his head, Dunn surrendered three runs in four in-
nings of relief against No. 24 Notre Dame, allowing the Irish to break
open a 1-1 tie in the eighth inning and run away with the victory.
Previously thought to be a Sunday starter, Dunn was thrust
into the closer’s role without some of the mental toughness the job
requires. Now, after an off season of growth under Foster, Gam-
bino believes he is more than ready to embrace the hardest gig in
baseball.
“If you’re going to close, at some point you might give it up. Th en
how are you going to react after that?” Gambino said. “And Justin
has showed he can handle that, too. Justin’s matured a lot since he’s
been here in all facets: academically, emotionally, athletically.”
Gambino isn’t the only one who believes in Dunn. In fact, Dunn’s
biggest supporter might be the same one handing him the ball late
in the game.
“You’re sitting in the dugout like, ‘Th ose are my two runners. I
don’t want him to lose this game for the team,’” King said. “And you
hand it off to [Dunn] and you’re just like, ‘Whatever. He’s got it.’
Th ere’s so much trust with him. He’s had a lot more composure under
pressure, I know he’s gained that from freshman year until now.”
Perhaps it’s his teammates’ confi dence in his abilities that has
translated into Dunn’s own self-assurance on the fi eld.
As Dunn gets loose before an inning, he struts around the rubber
like his neighborhood corner, chain dangling, while opposing hitters
try to read his pitches. On the mound, he carelessly sags off to one
side before starting his violent leg kick.
“Basically, it’s too easy for him,” King said with a smile. “It comes
across as swagger, or even cockiness, but it’s just that confi dence that
he has that he knows his stuff is better than whoever’s hitting.”
So far in 2016, King and Dunn have already showed—al-
beit briefl y—fl ashes of the brilliance that’s expected out
of the junior pitching tandem this year.
As the Opening Day starter in Glendale, Ariz., for BC’s series with
Northern Illinois, King delivered seven innings of shutout ball, giv-
ing up only one hit en route to a 5-1 win. Th e next day, Dunn closed
out the second game of the series with a strikeout. In the team’s fi rst
weekend of action, King earned a win, Dunn notched a save, and the
Eagles left the desert with a 4-0 record under their belts.
Gambino and his staff
know that the success of King
and Dunn is absolutely vital if
the group wants to accom-
plish its goal of reaching
Omaha at season’s end for
the NCAA Tournament.
And both Gambino and
MLB scouts recognize that
the tools are there for
BC’s bookends.
But what about
Dunn’s Pedro Mar-
t inez compar i-
sons?
King, for
one, sees
the similar-
ities clear
a s d a y :
“Oh, big
time.”
But
Gambino?
“When Pe-
dro was Pedro,
all three of his
pitches were ar-
guably the best—he
had the best fastball,
the best curveball,
and the best changeup
in the big leagues,” he said. “I
love Justin, but he’s not there
yet.”
Yet.
FROM STARTRILEY OVEREND
ASSOC. SPORTS EDITOR
MIKE KINGJUSTIN DUNN
TO FINISHThe bookends of BC’s pitching staff showed flashes
of brilliance last year. Can they put it all together
and send the Eagles to Omaha in May?
46 Strikeouts in only
47.1 innings pitched
last year
59
97
122.99
53
1
Saves in 2015, T-7th
on BC’s single-sea-
son record list
Innings pitched
without allowing a
run over a 6-game
stretch last April
MPH, rumored top
speed of his fastball
during the Cape Cod
Summer League
Walks allowed, T-1st
in the ACC
Career ERA, 2nd
all-time in school
history
Hits allowed last
season, T-4th in
ACC
Hits allowed in a
complete game
shutout of Georgia
Tech last AprilDREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR
THE HEIGHTS FEB. 25, 2016 3SPRING SPORTS PREVIEW NICK SCIORTINO
Out of all the bad things that
happened for Boston College
baseball on April 10, 2015, Nick
Sciortino’s error was probably the least memo-
rable.
After suff ering under the weight of 110.6
inches of snow, Shea Field had fi nally cleared
and dried enough to give baseball its home
ACC opener, three weeks overdue. Yet instead
of a cheery spring afternoon, it was a chilly,
windy day of baseball. And it didn’t get better
from there.
Friday night starter Mike King cruised
once through Clemson’s order at home before
the Tigers figured him out. Clemson then
scored in each successive inning, building up a
double-digit lead and crushing BC by a score
of 11-6. On a longer timeline, this was also the
day Chris Shaw, BC’s best bat last season, broke
his hamate bone and missed the next three
weeks of the season, a pivotal stretch during
which the Eagles were swept in back-to-back
weekends.
And then there was Sciortino’s day behind
the plate—arguably his worst of 2015. In the top
of the fourth, after back-to-back doubles and a
single had put a pair of runs on the board for
Clemson, Chase Pinder tried to steal second.
Sciortino came up throwing but sailed the ball
over the head of Blake Butera at second, allow-
ing Pinder to move on to third.
Th at was the error Nick Sciortino made in
2015. Th e only one.
And even then, King bailed out his battery
mate, striking out the man at the plate to strand
Pinder on third. It wasn’t often that Sciortino
needed to be bailed out last season. With his
cannon of an arm, Sciortino helped his pitchers
by throwing out 17 runners last season, tied
for fourth-most in the ACC, and another 17
down at Cape Cod this summer, which led the
league. No, more typically it was the other way
around.
Such as the very
next afternoon.
After taking the
thrashing Friday
night, BC handed
the ball to John
G o r m a n f o r
the second
game. Th e
senior
walked the leadoff man on eight pitches, then
gave up a seeing-eye single to right, placing
Clemson in a place to pick up right where it
left off .
Th at is, until Sciortino spotted Eli White
taking a hefty lead off second. Th e error he had
made the night before throwing to second didn’t
deter him. He relayed a sign to Johnny Adams
at short, and, on the next pitch, he fi red the ball
to second base, where Adams laid down the tag
before White could dive back safely. One out.
Just moments later, Steven Duggar took off
for second, daring Sciortino to make the 127-
foot throw again. Sciortino did. Two down.
Gorman still hadn’t quite settled in, surren-
dering a walk to the third man in the order. Th e
cleanup spot fell to Reed Rohlman, who had
smacked a pair of doubles on Friday. Instead
of trying to just throw a strike once the count
reached 3-2 and risk another blast to a gap,
Gorman trusted his catcher, hurling a ball in the
dirt for Rohlman to chase. He did, and Sciortino
handled it from there, hucking a throw down
to fi rst to end the inning.
By averting the potential crisis in the fi rst,
Sciortino helped his starter get through 5 1/3 on
a day he didn’t nearly have his best stuff . Th at lift
was just enough for BC’s off ense, which rallied
in the absence of Shaw to put up eight runs and
even the series. Even though the only off ensive
spark Sciortino provided that game was an
inconsequential base hit, he was as valuable
a part of the win as anyone else, as any starter
who knew Sciortino would say.
“It’s complete trust,” BC head coach Mike
Gambino said of his pitching staff and their
primary catcher. “Trust that he’s going to keep
them focused, and that he’s going to get them
through stuff .”
The staff has reason to trust him. The
sophomore, who started 43 of BC’s 65 games at
catcher last season, had 381 chances to make a
defensive play. Besides that one throw to sec-
ond that got away, he made all of the other
380, giving him a .997 fi elding percentage.
Th at was the best of any ACC fi elder with
at least 200 opportunities last season.
But he didn’t start out as one of the
top defensive catchers in the confer-
ence. At this point, Sciortino
can still say he has spent
the majority of his life at
shortstop.
Sciortino
started
i n L i t t l e
League as any kid does
in baseball, bouncing
around the diamond to
diff erent positions along
the way. When he was 11,
he saw his first regular
time behind the plate
for a travel team.
Yet long be-
fore the experience
proved enough for Sciortino to learn the fi ner
points of the role, coaches threw him back
to short, where they saw his strong arm and
good hands fitting best on the field. From
then on through his fi rst couple years at high
school, he stuck to the infi eld, excelling along
the way to become a star in his hometown of
Barrington, N.J.
By hitting .491 with a pair of homers his
sophomore year as the shortstop/second base-
man for Haddon Heights High School, he made
his way onto the radar of college coaches. On
perfectgame.org, Sciortino was ranked as the
18th-best prospect in New Jersey of the Class
of 2013—but still not as a catcher.
“I thought I was going to play college base-
ball as a middle infi elder,” Sciortino said.
As his stock rose, so did the attention paid
to him at competitive camps. But he wasn’t the
only one with the skill to make it to the next
level. His speed was the biggest problem—he
recorded a 7.26-second 60-yard dash his sopho-
more year in high school. Th at’s a time that can
be improved over the years, but anything over
seven is a disadvantage among the best of the
best competing in top-of-the-line camps.
Like, for example, Tri-State Arsenal, a top
camp situated in the Northeast that has sent
dozens of kids on to the next level, including
Mike Trout. Fortunately for Sciortino, a former
assistant coach for Virginia Tech also regularly
showed up at the camp over the winter: Mike
Gambino.
Sciortino was just 13 when BC baseball’s
current head coach fi rst met him. And Sciortino
made an early impression.
“I loved him even back then,” Gambino
said.
A former infi elder at BC and in the minor
leagues, Gambino had noticed Sciortino’s lack
of speed at the infi eld position that requires the
most quickness and athleticism. Yet, he had also
seen Sciortino’s other qualities: a strong arm,
quick hands, and a growing sense of leadership
on the diamond.
“So I start looking at that and I’m like, why
can’t he catch?” Gambino said.
Gambino spoke to Joe and Bob Barth, the
father-and-son combo that runs Arsenal, about
getting Sciortino behind the plate to catch a
bullpen session over the winter of his junior
year. Th ey liked it. With Sciortino’s high-school
mind and muscle memory fi rmly attuned to
the role of an infi elder, though, the results of
his catching reprisal weren’t quite what either
guy had in mind.
“He stunk,” Gambino said last week, laugh-
ing as he thought back on it. “I had a pretty
good relationship with him at that point, so he
came up and talked to me afterward and I’m
like, ‘Man, you stunk.’”
As a good-natured, confi dent kid, Sciortino
laughed along with him. Gambino wasn’t fi n-
ished, though. It took a little explaining about
where he was coming from, but Gambino even-
tually left it with Sciortino to keep working on
it, and he’d be back to check out his progress in
June after Sciortino’s high school season.
And then, he still stunk. But ...
“He was so much better,” Gambino recalled.
Suffi ciently better that the coach asked him
what he thought about fully committing to the
change. Sciortino said he was ready, and Gam-
bino recruited him to BC as a catcher.
Th at’s where the real learning began.
When Sciortino arrived at
Chestnut Hill in the fall of
2013, he was part of a trio of
players tasked to replace Matt Pare, a catcher
who served as captain, had the honor of wear-
ing No. 8 to honor Peter “Sonny” Nictakis,
and led the Eagles in batting average, slugging
percentage, on-base percentage, and RBIs
his senior year. Sciortino didn’t have time to
worry about leading the team in an off ensive
category—he just had to learn how to catch.
“Th ere are so many things that I thought
I knew, but I was fi ve steps behind,” Sciortino
said.
While Gambino had to focus on fi lling out
the rest of the Eagles’ lineup with guys who
could begin competing against the best college
pitching in the country, the main responsibility
of developing Sciortino fell to Scott Friedholm,
the pitching coach who came to BC with Gam-
bino in 2010.
Th e two started from scratch, fi rst re-teach-
ing Sciortino how to catch the ball as a catcher.
At that point, it was no longer about just making
sure the pitch ends up in the glove. Sometimes
it’s better to block it, sometimes it’s better to
tilt the glove a little bit to the right to nab the
corner, sometimes you need to start popping up
mid-pitch to gun a ball down to second base.
Sciortino had to learn it all, and he had to fi gure
out much of it on the fl y—in BC’s third game of
the year, senior Nate LaPointe suff ered a career-
ending knee injury, and Sciortino entered that
game to replace him.
For the rest of the year, he and sophomore
catcher Stephen Sauter split time behind the
plate, though Sciortino saw 10 more games
of action than his partner. As Gambino has
demonstrated numerous times over the past
fi ve years, he isn’t afraid to play less experienced
guys he feels will benefi t in the long-term.
Th at doesn’t mean it always worked per-
fectly. Sciortino hit just .179 during that fi rst
year, and four of his 12 hits that season all came
in the same game against Pittsburgh.
“He knew he wasn’t ready, and we knew
he wasn’t ready, but we were investing in
what we believed could be a special player,”
Gambino said.
Once Sciortino had the basics
down, the coaches were able to
push him further, getting more
specifi c exposure to the innumerable situations
that can arise. One catching drill they started to
do, for example, involved a play with dirt-ball
reads. A machine throws breaking balls in the
dirt, which the guys had to block. Th en, they
had to look the runner back at second, and
throw out the batter-runner out at fi rst.
“Scores’ freshman year, he didn’t know
that play existed,” Gambino said. “It was like
blowing his mind freshman year. But now he’s
built his database.”
As Sciortino progressed throughout the
season, he became more and more comfort-
able behind the plate, working countless hours
in practice to build up that database. Once he
entered his sophomore year with a new pitching
coach in Jim Foster, it didn’t take long for the
two to get on the same page.
“Nick is a sponge, he wants to get better
everyday, you can’t give him too much informa-
tion, he takes it all in and uses it to get better and
help us win games,” Foster said in an email.
Every guy up and down the staff likely owes
some part of his development over the past
season or two to an observation from Scior-
tino, gained either through watching them in
practice or in the hours of fi lm-watching and
meetings he takes part in prior to and during a
series. Now, for the fi rst time this year, he’ll get
the chance to pass that knowledge down the
next man in line.
Right now, that’s Gian Martellini, one of
the few position players in a pitching-heavy
freshman class this year. He’s the man Gambino
sees as his catcher of the future. While Sciortino
had to work his way through innumerable in-
game mistakes to reach the level he’s at today,
Martellini won’t be rushed. When he went into
practice a couple weeks ago and BC did that
dirt-ball read drill, he watched Sciortino and
Sauter handle the drill with ease. It was the fi rst
time he had ever seen it.
Now, Martellini can focus on hitting as a
designated hitter during the games this year
and more gradually build up his catching prow-
ess without the sacrifi ce of as much in-game
learning. Gambino also no longer has to make
the constant decisions about putting a guy out
on the diamond before his time has come. For
everything that Sciortino had to learn the hard
way, he can now pass it on to his mentee.
Sciortino isn’t the only example of this—Joe
Cronin has similar stories about that type of
improvement—but as the starting catcher,
and now also a captain this season, no other
player has the same capacity to infl uence his
peers, especially with that big crop of fresh-
man arms.
Even as he prepares to take on an even
bigger role this season, Sciortino isn’t worried
about being perfect. He can’t be: he already
made an error in BC’s opener against Northern
Illinois last Friday. Even though he’d like to keep
improving at the plate, his attention isn’t on
himself anymore.
“My main focus is helping these freshmen
get through,” Sciortino said. “I remember when
I was a freshman, walking into Miami. Wher-
ever we play, they’re going to have that same
feeling, so kind of slow them down a little bit.”
Th ere’s no one better to help get everyone
caught up.
ALL CAUGHT UP
Nick Sciortino may have
been a shortstop in high
school, but he has turned
into the ACC’s best
defensive catcher.
ALEC GREANEY
HEIGHTS EDITOR
MICHAEL SULLIVAN / HEIGHTS EDITOR
.997 Fielding percentage in 2015 17 Runners thrown out at Cape
Cod, leading the league
Mike Gambino still isn’t so sure how it
happened.
Chris Shaw, arguably the best Bos-
ton College baseball player the program has ever seen,
had been complaining for a couple of days about the
fl eshy part of his right hand, around the wrist. He hadn’t
gotten hit by a pitch. No one had banged into him in the
outfi eld. And he certainly had behaved himself enough
off the fi eld to avoid any foolish actions.
In the opener of a three-game series against Clem-
son last season, whatever pain Shaw had been feeling
fi nally came to its breaking point. Th e right fi elder,
known more for his clout at the plate than his deftness
roaming the plains of Shea Field, crashed into the wall
while snagging a fl y ball off the bat of a Tiger. Not long
after, in the eighth inning of another blowout by a su-
perior Atlantic Coast Conference opponent, Gambino
pulled Shaw out of precaution.
X-rays that evening came back negative, but a hand
specialist the following Monday wouldn’t give Shaw
news he was hoping for:
Broken hamate, could be 3-6 weeks, if Shaw was
lucky.
It was the toughest blow that an Eagles team look-
ing to make a run at its fi rst playoff berth since 2010
could have faced. And yet, somehow, it was also BC’s
biggest blessing.
Of course, Gambino won’t ever admit that. Who
can blame him? Shaw was the 31st overall pick in the
2015 Major League Baseball Draft by the San Francisco
Giants. Despite missing 14 games because of that bro-
ken hamate, Shaw led the Eagles in home runs (11) and
RBIs (43) while batting .319 with a slugging percentage
of .611. Th is summer, as a 21-year-old playing for San
Francisco’s Single-A Affi liate, the Salem-Keizer Volca-
noes, Shaw hit .287/.360/.551, with 12 home runs and
30 RBIs in a mere 46 games. And when asked if it was
better for the program not to have Shaw clogging the
middle of his order, Gambino broke out in laughter.
“No, given the choice, I’d rather have Chris Shaw in
the lineup,” Gambino said in his offi ce last week.
But with Shaw forced to the pine, Gambino’s re-
cruiting prowess and coaching capabilities came alive.
And a plan in the works since he took over fi ve seasons
ago fi nally began to unfold.
It’s hard to add up the countless reasons why
Birdball struggles to keep up in the ACC. Given
BC’s stringent academic requirements, the
program rarely accepts junior college (JUCO) transfers.
It’s one of the only programs in the country in which
athletes must be interviewed by the admissions offi ce on
their offi cial visits, regardless of sport. Th ose rules don’t
apply to even the more academically notable colleges in
the conference, like defending champion Virginia.
Gambino can only grant 11.7 scholarships to fi ll up
his 35-man roster. Unlike football and men’s basketball,
these scholarships can be spread out across players. But
this also prevents Gambino from giving more than a
half scholarship to any one player. Th e money has to
be spread around to create a balanced unit.
Oh yeah, and then there’s the snow.
Balancing a proper schedule to give every team
ample space and time underneath the bubble over
Alumni Stadium is hard enough. But when the snow
piles on, like it did three seasons ago, it can collapse. In
2013, a lack of practice space left the Eagles unprepared
heading into a daunting ACC schedule, which resulted
in a 12-40 record. And it’ll still be a couple of years
before the new indoor practice facility is ready.
Even when practice time is over, Shea Field’s
natural grass is often unplayable. Gambino and the
ACC know this, frontloading BC’s schedule with
road games. Th e Eagles won’t take to the Pellagrini
Diamond until Mar. 15 against Holy Cross—they
won’t even open their ACC slate at home until Friday
Apr. 1 vs. Florida State.
But that’s assuming full cooperation from the
weather. Last year, BC was scheduled to begin at home
on Mar. 20. Because of last year’s record snowfall over
Boston, the Eagles were forced to move a series against
North Carolina State to nearby Northborough, Mass.,
and another against Duke to Newark, Del. Birdball
couldn’t even play at home until Apr. 8.
And still, BC was only a couple of wins away from
returning to the ACC Tournament and hosting a regional
on the path to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
How can that be?
THE HEIGHTS FEB. 25, 20164 SPRING SPORTS PREVIEW BASEBALL THE HEIGHTSFEB. 25, 2016 5
ONE FINAL HURDLEMike Gambino’s recruiting plan has finally panned out. The only thing missing is a
trip to the postseason. This year is that year for Boston College baseball.
MICHAEL SULLIVAN
SPORTS EDITORC
orner infi elder Joe Cronin recalls coming
to BC four years ago as a shortstop. As a
freshman and sophomore, that’s where he
primarily played. But if you watched a practice, you’d
probably never guess that. As soon as Cronin would
settle in the 5.5 hole, Gambino would force him over to
third base. When he was done looking at him at third,
Gambino slid Cronin over to second. After he got his
reps over at second, he’d grab a new glove and go to fi rst.
Cronin didn’t like being shuffl ed around, at fi rst.
“I remember I’d say, ‘Well, Coach, I’m not a third
baseman, I’m not a second baseman, I’m a shortstop,”
Cronin said last week. “And he’d say, ‘Yeah, but, you
might be.’”
Cronin couldn’t be more grateful that Gambino
told him that.
It’s not a common practice to move infielders
around the diamond like that. Not only do high school
players learn to specialize in one sport, they often do at
a particular position. Barring injury, they’ll enter col-
lege and stay there. Th e idea is that, the more reps you
get at one spot, the better you develop. Even the most
advanced play becomes muscle memory.
Gambino doesn’t see it that way.
He started his baseball career in 1997 at BC as a
third baseman, but arm problems moved him over
to second. When Gambino signed with a farm team
in the Red Sox system following his senior season in
2000, he became a utility man. “Mostly because I wasn’t
good enough to beat out anyone else at any position,”
Gambino remembered, with a laugh.
He quickly realized, by moving around the infi eld,
that the four positions weren’t all that diff erent from
one another. In fact, Gambino discovered that learning
the intricacies of one spot made him better at the other
three. Figuring out where to place your feet on the bag
as a second baseman while turning a double play helps
you know as a shortstop where to feed the ball. Learning
how to make that 120-foot throw on a drag bunt from
third base will show you where to properly place your
feet at second or fi rst to get the out. By learning those
other positions, Gambino believes that an infi elder’s
defensive talent increases tenfold.
So, every day during fall practices, Gambino’s
infi elders will spend time at other positions. Th ey’ll
continually cycle around the diamond before slowly
cutting down their time as it gets closer to spring. Th e
results have made BC one of the nation’s better defen-
sive teams. Even Johnny Adams, one of the best fi elding
shortstops in the country and the man bestowed with
Gambino’s cherished No. 8 this season, believes he has
improved by playing elsewhere on the dirt.
No current player exhibits this more than Jake
Palomaki. Th e 5-foot-10 sophomore is built like a
second baseman, with quick feet but a below-average
arm. He was blocked at the position last year by four-
year starter Blake Butera. Instead of benching him for
lacking a position, Gambino taught Palomaki the art
of the hot corner. At third base, Palomaki developed
solidly while becoming an on-base machine at the top
of the order.
With Butera gone, Palomaki can return to second
base, taking everything he has learned from third to
help him at his natural position. According to Adams,
he has readjusted with ease. Th e two have created excel-
lent chemistry in the middle of the infi eld, and Gam-
bino is excited for his new double-play duo. After all, it
doesn’t take much to rotate around the diamond.
“We’re not reinventing the wheel here,” Gambino
said.
His players certainly need that help when
they arrive at BC. It’s not through any
fault of their own. Little League and high
school ball is wildly diff erent from the college level, and
many players haven’t seen some of the plays that come
up in the heat of the ACC. Th e talent has always been
there, it’s just a matter of the execution.
Sometimes, that talent is even good enough to beat
a professional team. Almost, at least.
Gambino recalled BC’s exhibition game against the
Boston Red Sox. Th e Eagles gave the Sox as hard of a
fi ght as a college team could. In a dangerous situation
with runners on, his infi elders couldn’t connect on a
tailor-made double play, choosing a safe out at fi rst
instead. Th is put runners at second and third with one
out, instead of a runner at third with two out. Th e next
batter knocked in a run on an RBI groundout, before
the following one drove in two more with a single. Even
though that annual game may not count in the record
books, Gambino never lets his players forget it.
“I showed that to the boys, and they all blinked and
said ‘Oh my god, there it is,’” Gambino said. “And since
then, there’s been multiple times when that’s happened
and they always throw to the right base.”
Cronin’s personal development as a fi elder is a
testament to Gambino’s mission. Th e Eagles played
VCU on Opening Day and Cronin, a freshman, started
his fi rst career game at third. Th e Rams led BC 2-1
entering the bottom of the seventh, when they had a
runner at second and one man out. Landon Prentiss
rolled a slow ball up to Cronin at third, the type that a
more experienced fi elder would’ve eaten to allow the
runner to get on with a single while preventing the run
and keeping the double play intact.
Try telling a kid to hold the ball in his fi rst real
play at third.
He couldn’t set his feet and airmailed the throw
to fi rst, allowing a runner to score. VCU would add
another to put the game farther out of reach in what
became a 4-1 fi nal.
Weeks later, during the summer season, Cronin
texted Gambino saying he got a similar play. Th is one,
he patiently waited, set his feet, and nailed the man
at fi rst.
Th ose weren’t the types of plays that Gambino could
always practice with his guys. When Cronin came to
Chestnut Hill three years ago, Gambino needed to rely
on his freshmen to fi ll key roles in the starting lineup.
Keep in mind, jumping from high school to the college
game isn’t a smooth transition—even Shaw hit a measly
.165 in his freshman season. Because of that, Gambino
has had to spend his precious little practice time ham-
mering down the fundamentals. It’s a rut that he has
been desperate to get out of since he arrived in 2010.
So Gambino and his staff would have to sit down
his players after they screwed up in the fi eld. Instead of
telling them how to fi x it, they’d have to learn through
their own mistakes.
But those days are over for the Eagles. Th e roster
has turned over enough to a healthy amount of play-
ers in each grade—six seniors, seven juniors, nine
sophomores, and 11 freshmen—all of whom have been
recruited all the way through by Gambino’s staff . Th e
numbers are still swayed toward the underclassmen,
but with only three position players in the freshman
class—catcher Gian Martellini, infi elder Jake Alu, and
outfi elder Connor Bacon—and prepared starters at
each position, Gambino doesn’t feel any pressure to
throw any man out there before he’s ready. Even last
year, Gambino had to start freshmen in the fi eld, like
Palomaki and outfi elder Donovan Casey.
Now, Gambino has the time to work with his fresh-
men so that they can learn by messing up in practice
rather than in a game, when it actually matters. Th at
way, his team won’t just be old. It’ll stay old. Older guys
will be prepared from what they’ve been taught on the
sidelines. Newcomers will get the time to evolve. And
the cycle will keep rolling on.
“We were in kindergarten,” Gambino said, referring
to the previous several years. “Now, when most of our
team is past kindergarten, you can take the freshmen,
and develop them, and work on that stuff , and take the
older guys who are going to be on the fi eld more and
do higher-level stuff .”
Learning those other positions also helps
guys get into the lineup without being
restricted to a particular position. Th at
helps a batting order that had trouble when cen-
tered around Shaw last season. Pitchers could move
around Shaw, the lumbering man with the big bat in
the heart of the order. Th at put a strain on the men
behind him, especially Cronin, to be “the guy” in big
spots. When Shaw went down, Cronin felt even more
pressure to become a player he didn’t want to be.
Instead of the 5-foot-9 doubles man with a compact
swing, Cronin spent too much time watching Shaw
hit 500-foot bombs in batting practice. He knew he
had that type of home-run power—hell, he showed it
when he launched a ball over the Green Monster to
win the Beanpot over UMass last season. But it made
his swing too advanced, causing him to spiral into a
prolonged slump. By the time Gambino and Cronin
worked on it, it was too late—the Eagles were out
of playoff contention and Cronin went down with a
separated shoulder.
Th is time around, Cronin knows it’s not his respon-
sibility to be “the guy,” even though, by all accounts, a
senior captain probably should be. But playing in his
last season only helps him relax and realize he will do
better if he’s just along for the ride.
“I could have my worst season and we’ll still have
a great season,” Cronin said.
Why? Because there is no guy. Th e Eagles can keep
the line moving more than they ever could with Shaw.
When his hitters aren’t confi ned defensively, Gambino
can help them fi nd their way into the lineup. If his
plan works out the way it should, the Eagles’ order
should look dangerous from top to bottom. And it’ll
keep the pressure evenly on every player: No one will
be pitched around, but no one will be safe.
A quick look at the Opening Day box score
shows that. Th e top three—Palomaki, Adams, and
Strem—couldn’t manage a hit. But the bottom six
went 7-for-22 with all fi ve runs driven in for a 5-1
win over Northern Illinois. Th e big bat? Martellini,
the freshman who has found an early home at the
designated hitter slot.
BC’s Saturday starter, left-hander Jesse Adams,
harkened to Moneyball when thinking about how
excited he is about the lineup behind him. He believes
the Eagles have the same exact production as Shaw in
their order, just not with any one individual.
It’s not hard to see why. Th e Eagles return four
starting hitters—Strem, Palomaki, Casey, and Logan
Hoggarth—all of whom hit at least .289 last season.
Cronin, Adams, and catcher Nick Sciortino all have
had their own highlights at the plate, too—after all,
Adams was an All-Star in the Cape Cod League.
And, of course, Cronin won’t let anyone forget that
bomb at Fenway Park, which, as he remembers, was a
perfect representation of everything Gambino tries to
do when helping a hitter. In the weeks leading up to
the championship game, Gambino worked extensively
to simplify that swing. He kept telling Cronin to just
get the barrel down, don’t think, and let it fl y. Cronin
got that opportunity on a 1-0 pitch, a straight fastball,
middle-in, right in his wheelhouse. Just a quick stroke
to give the Eagles a lead they’d never relinquish.
“Yeah, there might’ve been a little jetstream up top
there, too,” Cronin said.
What’s forgotten, though, is that that
was the pivotal game in a 9-5 run
the Eagles had without Shaw. During
that time, BC stayed hot because of the strength of a
pitching staff that is now receiving praise from Base-ball America. Th at talent was magnifi ed in a three-
game series with a traditional powerhouse, Georgia
Tech. Staff ace Mike King tossed a 1-0 complete
game shutout in the Friday game, followed quickly by
former Eagle John Gorman’s dominant performance
in a 6-1 victory on ALS Awareness Day in honor of
former team captain, Pete Frates.
But none were more impressive than Jesse Adams,
this year’s Saturday starter. Th e crafty left-hander
consistently frustrated the Yellow Jackets in his fi rst
ACC start of the year, using his great high-arm slot
to trick batters while blowing past hitters early in
the count with a late hop on his fastball. When he
got them in a hole, Jesse would use a late-breaking
circle change. In a fl ash, Adams had rolled through 6
2/3 perfect innings. His only fl aw would be a double
by Matt Gonzalez, a friend of Adams since he was
15 years old. But it wouldn’t stop the Eagles in a
4-0 win that appeared to place them squarely in the
hunt for a return trip to the ACC Tournament in
Durham, N.C.
Th e good times didn’t last long.
BC entered North Carolina the weekend after
Georgia Tech and the Beanpot with every intention
of taking a stronghold of a postseason berth. But the
team, instead of keeping its composure, panicked.
With Palomaki on third, Butera on second, and
Strem on fi rst, the Eagles were down 1-0 in the top
of the ninth with two outs and Casey at the plate. Th e
freshman rolled a ball down the left side of the infi eld,
racing to fi rst. But a bang-bang play at fi rst didn’t turn
the Eagles’ way. A chance to ride that momentum and
take two-of-three from a tough divisional opponent
turned into a sweep. Th e following weekend, BC
was swept by Virginia Tech. All of the highs of those
great pitching performances were gone before Shaw
could even return to the lineup. Th ere was a lot to
blame, from injuries to key players to pressing and
trying to be perfect.
But what it taught the Eagles was invaluable. It
put the older guys in a position they had never been
before: competing for that playoff berth. Although it
didn’t turn out the way they planned, the experience
helped propel the younger guys into a new culture
in Chestnut Hill.
It’s one built on Gambino’s three core prin-
ciples: Character. Toughness. Class.
Character: It’s what wins. You recruit the
high-character guys, and have them buy into what
BC sells, both on and off the fi eld. You know, “cura
personalis,” the whole Jesuit thing. Gambino only
wants guys who love that idea that they’re going to
contribute to the community, not just to the team.
Toughness: Take the adversity head-on. Th ere are
a lot of reasons why BC can’t succeed. Cold, travel,
lack of facilities. But, in Gambino’s mind, that’s ex-
actly how his team can succeed.
Class: Take the character and represent it. A father
called Gambino to tell him that two of his players
spent 15 minutes talking to his 11-year-old son, even
signing autographs. What doesn’t matter is which
two players it was. Because, as Gambino believes,
if he has run his program properly, it could’ve been
any one of them.
The players he has recruited exemplify those
personality traits. He has the talent on the fi eld that
completes his vision: a strong pitching staff , sound
defensive skills, and a lineup balanced from top
to bottom. It’s the near-completion of a recruiting
cycle that should set the Eagles up to contend for
years to come.
But until his team returns to postseason play,
Gambino feels he has accomplished nothing.
“Are we better than we were and are we getting
better every year? Yes,” Gambino said, looking stern.
“Are we where we want to be? No.”
And there’s only one result that can make Gam-
bino satisfi ed.
“We want to be in Omaha.”
“I could have my worst
career year and we’ll still have a
great season.”
-Joe Cronin
JESSE ADAMS
JOE CRONIN
JOHNNY ADAMS
DREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR
DANIELLA FASCIANO / HEIGHTS STAFF
MICHAEL SULLIVAN / HEIGHTS EDITOR
AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS EDITORFormer Boston College baseball player Sonny Nictakis exemplifi ed every ideal qual-
ity that Mike Gambino looks for when he recruits. Despite battling cancer, Nictakis
never complained once in his fi ve years on the Heights. Th ere would be days when
Nictakis would wear a chemo pump on his body and be unable to sleep because of the
pain. Yet he’d never miss a day of practice. In his memory, Gambino and his players vote
on one player every season to wear Nictakis’ No. 8 jersey. Th is year, that honor goes
to shortstop Johnny Adams. When asked about why he was chosen, Adams couldn’t
think of a reason. But Gambino believes that only speaks more to his character.
“Th e fact that he wouldn’t answer why he’s wearing No. 8 is part of it,” Gambino
said.
Last year, corner infi elder Joe Cronin lost his stroke. Th e junior batted a mere .223—a
68-point drop from the previous season—with four home runs and 23 RBIs. Cronin at-
tributed that to trying to be “the guy” and pressing too much to try to be the power hitter
that he wasn’t. Mike Gambino simply blames him for taking too much batting practice
with Chris Shaw. Nevertheless, his teammates appreciated the leadership qualities Cronin
brings to the fi eld, electing him the team’s captain along with catcher Nick Sciortino.
Gambino believes that, with the captaincy, will come a rebound season.
“I’m telling you,” Gambino said, “Joe Cronin is going to have a great year.”
No one questions BC’s deepness in the lineup and its skill defensively. Th e Eagles have
a clear ace in Mike King and a lockdown closer in Justin Dunn. Where the team could see
trouble is in its rotation depth. Th at’s why left-handed starter Jesse Adams might be the
Eagles’ most important player in 2016. Adams started eight games and appeared in 19 to
the tune of a 3.05 ERA. He had a 2-3 record in 62 innings, striking out 70 batters while
only walking 26 and allowing a batting average of .205. If Adams can reclaim that magic
in his ACC starts, he’ll be a dominant force for the Eagles this season.
CRAFT
Y LE
FTY
COMEB
ACK C
APTAIN
NO. 8 FOR
SONNY
THE HEIGHTS FEB. 25, 20166 SPRING SPORTS PREVIEW SARAH MANNELLY
How do you get on the campus
SnapStory?
It’s a question that every
member of the Boston College population has
asked, whether to her peers, God, or herself.
It’s a mystery that people have tried to solve
by dancing on tables, taking obscure study
breaks that also involve dancing on tables, or
attempting (and failing) to do something re-
motely musical. Best friend duos have planned
their toothbrushing time together to fi lm it
in front of a mirror. Students have prolonged
their nighttime studying to send from in a selfi e
in front of Gasson at obscenely late times, and
athletes have made sure to document their
walks to practice at obscenely early times.
Hardly anything seems to work.
So we’re left wondering, wracking our
brains with that daily question of what we
have to do or who we have to be to get on
that damn Story.
Th ere might be an answer to that second
question: be Sarah Mannelly.
I asked Mannelly how she ends up on the
BC SnapStory so often. She just looked up and
laughed shyly, saying that there was an ongoing
joke in the locker room that she actually ran it
and that’s how she got on so often: twice, three
times a day, which, to anyone wondering how
to get on once, is a ridiculous amount.
It’s unfortunate that SnapStories disap-
pear after 24 hours, because perhaps the best
way to get a grasp on Mannelly is to watch
those Stories. Th e extremely humble, slightly
soft-spoken Mannelly who sat down with me
was only a sliver of who she is. Th e rest is the
Mannelly who dances around the locker room,
leads silly team singalongs, and comes up with
stupidly funny jokes—that’s the Mannelly who
doesn’t just entertain the BC population for a
few seconds, but fuels her teammates’ daily
motivation, giving them both the energy and
drive they need to be a successful team and
program.
I knew Mannelly’s face when I came
to BC because I saw her almost every
day for two years during my freshman
and sophomore years of high school in New
Canaan, Conn. Say her name to anyone who
lives in my small town or works at New Canaan
High and he or she will know exactly who you’re
talking about. Forget that she was an outstand-
ing three-season athlete, which landed her
name in many local headlines. She simply had a
personality that made her well-known. She was
funny, loud, and liked by everyone. Mannelly
was the kind of person that you not only knew
of, but wanted to get to know better. Th ere are
certain hometown, high school legends, and
Sarah Mannelly was one of them.
I have one particularly vivid memory of
Mannelly, and it involves a cape, a tricycle,
and a microphone.
New Canaan High, per tradition, has a fall
pep rally that falls at the end of Spirit Week in
early October. It’s the last event of the week-
long spirit-fest, right before the Homecoming
football game. Th e goal is to get the student
body’s school pride to its highest point.
Th e key to a successful pep rally, however,
is not the students in the stands, or the sports
teams that perform dances for the rest of the
school, or the announcement of the Home-
coming King and Queen. What makes a good
pep rally are the emcees of the event: two
students, a boy and a girl, are selected every
year to be the hypemen for the day. Th ey alone
are responsible for bringing everyone together
by putting on a show.
So on a Friday in October 2011, Mannelly
tied on her cape, got on her tricycle, and rode
on into the school gymnasium with 1,200
students waiting for her grand entrance.
Captain Sarah Mannelly is all seriousness on the field, but she and
her team will be laughing their way to a championship trophy.
KEATON McAULIFFE
HEIGHTS EDITOR
Th is kind of ridiculousness wasn’t uncom-
mon for Mannelly—it was what everyone
knew her for. While her specifi c, individual
actions were always unexpected, her comedic
personality was not. Th ose who watched her
and her emcee counterpart that day knew they
were getting a show, but they didn’t know that
they would be getting one that out-did any of
the others in previous years. Mannelly said that
herself before she went onto the pep rally stage,
telling the NCHS Courant that she wanted to
force energy out of the entire student body in
a way no one else had done before. And she
did. To this day, when I remember the NCHS
pep rally emcees, my mind goes straight to
Mannelly.
What made her such a high
school legend is the same
thing that makes her a staple
on the lacrosse team. Athletic ability aside, she
brings a character to the team that serves as
motivation not just during games and on the
fi eld, but before and during practice, which
can be awful. Since lacrosse is a heavy run-
ning sport, it requires a lot of practice doing
laps—with that comes even more motivation.
Training can be brutal, practices can be brutal.
And the team’s mood before one of those
practices can defi nitely be brutal. Th is is where
Mannelly comes in.
Mannelly has created the team mental-
ity that any tough conditioning is just like a
run with your friends. Her mantra alleviates
that feeling of impending pain that comes
with knowing a hard workout is coming—it
becomes nothing more than a good time,
hanging out with your pals. She makes it seem
easy, maybe even enjoyable. It lightens the
mood before training and keeps the team in a
good mental place.
“You never dread coming to practice,” said
Kate Weeks, one of Mannelly’s best friends on
the team. “She’s basically the light of the locker
room. She just makes it better, she helps us
love it even more.”
Thanks to the SnapStory, we can see
glimpses of this, but Mannelly says that a lot
of the locker room shenanigans aren’t caught
on camera. Some of the best memories that
she has made with the team, she said, have
been the bus rides or airport trips. Th ese are
the times when the team lets loose, the “team
clown,” as head coach Acacia Walker likes to
call Mannelly, starting it all.
“I think everyone just feels comfortable
with one another, being able to be goofy and
whatnot,” Mannelly said. “Everyone’s very
funny and loud so I think seeing me do the
goofy things I do makes everyone else feel
comfortable to follow and be themselves and
laugh at everyone.”
Setting examples. Th at’s how Man-
nelly fulfi lls her leadership role on
the team, whether that means being
the fi rst to break the ice in the locker room by
cracking a joke, or performing on the fi eld in
the way that she did in the team’s fi nal game of
last year, against Loyola Maryland during the
second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
It was also the game that would leave Mannelly
with the most serious injury of her career.
Th e game wasn’t going well for the Eagles.
At the half, the women had scored just two
goals, and were down by six. After Loyola’s
fi nal goal before the end of the fi rst period, you
could tell that Mannelly was fed up.
But she wasn’t just fed up, she was fi red up.
She circled away from the Hounds’ celebration
at the Eagles’ net, took a moment to remove
her mouth guard, and then immediately
looked for her team. She never showed any
indication of defeat. Instead, her face read pure
determination. She was ready to go.
And so she did. Mannelly sprinted, cutting
between three defenders and crossing the goal,
angling the ball into the back of the net. Mo-
ments later, she was weaving in and out of the
Hounds once again, traversing the circle with
short, instinctive steps, and spinning to avoid
defenders. She found her opening and tricked
out the keeper by bouncing the ball into the
goal. In a matter of minutes, Mannelly scored
three goals to bring the Eagles’ back within
range of advancing to the next round of the
tournament.
Th e team lost that range, however, and it
lost Mannelly. Th e game went on to end with
Loyola advancing to the next round, 19-12,
and with Mannelly benched to end the season
with a torn ACL.
“Before she got hurt, we were on the road
up because she showed us that we weren’t
done with that game,” Weeks said. “We were
in it because Sarah Mannelly was geared up
and ready to go.”
But regardless of either outcome, the game
sticks out in Weeks’ mind as one of Mannelly’s
most admirable. Despite the eventual loss, it
was Mannelly who made the team get back
on track in the second half, because seeing
her turn it up a notch inspired the rest of the
team to do the same. Even when she was forced
to the sidelines, she tried to keep morale and
incentive high.
And if Mannelly is geared up and ready to
go, the rest of the team is, too. While Man-
nelly was sidelined with an injury that had the
potential to take her out for months, Weeks
remembers her trying to keep her teammates’
heads in the game. She never cried, never
showed pain, and instead kept telling her team
it had to still be in it to win it, just like she was
still in it herself.
Th is is why Weeks calls Mannelly relent-
less.
Even in practice, Mannelly keeps up the
same energy and shows the same strength.
She’ll have two turnovers, Weeks said, and
then she’ll immediately follow those up with
three “phenomenal” plays. She doesn’t let
mistakes get to her. Instead, she simply acts
by another mantra of hers: just let it go. If she
messes up, her teammates see her make up
for it immediately. Mannelly is able to turn her
game around as if the mistake never happened.
She doesn’t quit.
“It’s because of what she does that makes
everyone else want to do the same,” Weeks
said. “It makes us play up to her level and get
to that extra gear.”
If Mannelly fi ghts, then the rest of the team
wants to fi ght, too. Her relentlessness inspires
FUNNY BUSINESS
the whole team to do and be the same.
And that’s exactly what she wants.
Because as much as Mannelly
is relentless, she’s also selfl ess,
Walker said.
Walker has witnessed this fi rsthand many
times in her career with Mannelly. She recalled
a specifi c play, in last year’s game against UNC.
One of Mannelly’s teammates, a steady player
according to Walker, had a couple of turnovers
in the game. After one of them, Mannelly took
notice and took action.
Walker described how she watched Mannel-
ly chase down the North Carolina girl who had
forced the BC turnover. She ran a full fi eld-length
of 100 yards back to the defensive end, checked
the UNC player, and forced a turnover of her
own to regain possession. She then sprinted back
down the fi eld, avoiding every UNC defender
to rapidly cover the distance between herself
and the UNC goal. But instead of going for the
points, Mannelly found her teammate who had
turned it over. Mannelly gave the ball right back
to her and she scored.
Walker calls this her favorite play of all
time. It’s for reasons like this, she says, that
Mannelly’s teammates love her.
“She has the team goals in mind before any
individual success,” Walker said. “She would
any day rather make somebody else look good
than make herself look good.”
Plays like this one solidify Mannelly’s
leadership and justify her role as a captain. Th e
combination of relentlessness and selfl essness
makes for a leader who goes out of her way to
elevate her team. She raises herself to a higher
standard in the process. Th is is what makes
Mannelly such a good player: she focuses on
her teammates and their success more than
her own.
“Her teammates love her,” Walker said.
“And they play hard for her.”
She even devoted her Tewaaraton Award
fi nalist achievement to her team, defl ecting
the personal successes that got her to be the
fi rst Eagle nominated for women’s lacrosse’s
highest honor.
“It was an honor to be represented and
have my name on it,” Mannelly said. “But I
think ultimately it was just a testament to the
team’s season and the success that we had. I
think we’re all happy to share that honor.”
And she may get to share the honor again
this year since she, along with teammates
Caroline Margolis and Kenzie Kent, is on the
Tewaaraton Award watchlist for this upcom-
ing season.
In which case, keep an eye out for Mannelly
on the BC SnapStory. In between her pre-prac-
tice locker room entertainment and her runs
with friends, she may just have her teammates
help her hold up a trophy or two.
“She’s basically the light of
the locker room.”
-Kate Weeks
181CAREER POINTS
1STEAGLE TO
BE NAMED A
TEWAARATON
FINALIST
2TIME
US LACROSSE
ALL-AMERICAN
50GOALS ON THE
2015 SEASON;
TIED FOR
TEAM-HIGH
NO. 6
JOHN QUACKENBOS / BC ATHLETICS
THE HEIGHTS FEB. 25, 2016 7SPRING SPORTS PREVIEW CAROLINE MARGOLIS
In 2007, something didn’t feel right
for Caroline Margolis.
Th e North Carolina native was
in the seventh grade at the time. She had
two brothers and one sister, and they were
all competitive. So Margolis funneled that
familial nature into soccer.
But by the time eighth grade rolled
around that fall, soccer didn’t hold the
same charm anymore. Something about
it just wasn’t clicking, and she was pretty
tired of playing it. So when her best friend
approached her and asked about lacrosse,
Margolis decided to give it a try. It wasn’t
the thrill of the sport that initially tempted
her, but the opportunity to play with friends.
She joined her best friend’s team and began
her lacrosse career.
Lacrosse ran in the Margolis family, as
Margolis’ older sister Hillary started play-
ing the sport in middle school. According
to Hillary, it wasn’t smooth sailing from
the get-go. Her fi rst memory of Margolis
and lacrosse is at the beach, when the two
of them bought plastic sticks so that they
could practice. Th en, neither showed any
signs of brilliance.
Even so, no one ever doubted that Mar-
golis would become a good lacrosse player.
Not just good, but Division I good. Th ere
was never any question, because she gave
110 percent at everything she did.
She was competitive and driven, a natu-
rally gifted athlete who would never stop
striving to improve. And when Margolis
mastered the basic skills, she began to excel,
both at the high school and travel levels.
Eventually, she would become one of the
ACC’s most versatile and driven players,
making her mark on the conference and
gathering accolades throughout her fi rst
three years in college.
Th e only thing left was a national cham-
pionship.
In high school, Margolis continued to
balance schoolwork and sports as she
played fi eld hockey and lacrosse—as
a midfi elder—for her high school team. She
served as lacrosse captain for her junior and
senior seasons, capturing the state title in 2012.
As a sophomore, Margolis joined the travel
club Carolina Fever to hone her skills in a more
competitive environment. Margolis’ coach at
the time, Katy O’Mara, was impressed with
her from the start.
O’Mara praised Margolis’ drive, determi-
nation, and focus. She considers her the best
player she has ever worked with at handling
constructive criticism. Indeed, according to
O’Mara, Margolis sought it out. She priori-
tized lacrosse and strove to improve, always
seeking advice on areas she could develop in
order to transform into a truly elite lacrosse
player.
Hillary says she realized that Margolis
would be playing college lacrosse about half-
way through high school, after the two sisters
had attended recruiting camps and discussed
the possibility of playing at a higher level with
coaches and their family. Caroline worked
hard and did everything possible to maximize
her exposure to college coaches, including
playing at tournaments and showcases, as
well as working at lacrosse camps and teach-
ing younger players the game. Th ough both
sisters played lacrosse, Margolis was much
more serious about taking it to the next level,
according to Hillary.
Th is determination paid off when she com-
mitted to play at BC. Her arrival in Chestnut
Hill in 2012 coincided with a turning point
for the school’s lacrosse program. For more
than 10 years, BC had either fi nished with a
losing record or hovered right around .500.
Th e Eagles were trying to make the transition
into an ACC powerhouse led by a new coach,
Acacia Walker, and a promising group of un-
derclassmen. Walker played college lacrosse
at Maryland and coached at Northwestern
during the Wildcats’ three consecutive na-
tional titles. When she accepted the job at BC,
Walker aimed to cultivate a winning program
just like she did at Northwestern. O’Mara said
Margolis was excited about the change and
enthusiastic to rise to the challenge of Division
I college lacrosse.
Beginning with her freshman campaign
in spring 2013, Margolis made her mark.
Over the course of the season, she scored six
goals, including her fi rst two collegiate goals
in an ACC victory over Virginia Tech. Her two
assists both came in a win against Canisius
College. The Eagles went 12-8 in 2013—a
respectable record, but better times were just
ahead for the team.
Over the next two years, BC became a
dominant member of the ACC while Margolis
stepped up and assumed a leadership role for
the team. 2014’s 16-5 record marked a key
transition for the Eagles, as they became a
legitimate conference threat. Th at season saw
key regular-season victories against Notre
Dame and Duke, among others. Margolis
added two goals in the victory over the Fight-
ing Irish. Th e Eagles also suff ered close losses
to historically dominant teams, like Syracuse,
Maryland, and North Carolina, all by two goals
or fewer. Th e season ended in May when the
Orange defeated BC in a close NCAA quarter-
fi nal game, 11-9—the same score as the team’s
regular-season matchup.
Th e 15-4 2015 season was paced by vic-
tories over Syracuse, Louisville, and UNC.
Margolis contributed one goal in the thrilling
10-9 victory over the Orange, three goals in
the overtime 16-15 win against the Cardinals,
and one goal in BC’s 10-9 overtime victory
against her home state’s Tar Heels. Th ough
the Eagles continued to emerge as one of the
ACC’s most competitive teams, they exited
the NCAA Tournament earlier than in 2014
with a crushing second-round loss to Loyola JOHN QUACKENBOS / BC ATHLETICS
TROPHYDREAMS
University Maryland.
BC’s goal for the past few years was simple:
bring the hardware home to Chestnut Hill
with a national championship victory. Th e
talent is there, and the drive is there, and the
heart is there, but it just hasn’t happened yet
for Walker’s Eagles. Now, Margolis is bringing
her skill and competitiveness to the fi eld every
game to ensure that this is the year for BC to
fi nally win it all.
“Knowing Caroline,” O’Mara said in an
email, “I would have to guess she wants noth-
ing more than for her team to be the last one
standing come May.”
Walker is full of praise for Mar-
golis. She complimented her
versatility on the fi eld and
far-reaching impact for the team.
Margolis will rise to any challenge Walker
gives her. She excels at the tasks she is given,
whether it’s playing shutdown defense, con-
trolling the middle of the fi eld, or pacing the
off ense with assists and goals.
Th e stat sheet certainly supports this. As a
midfi elder, Margolis has to be all over the fi eld
and prepared to run for 60 minutes straight. As
a result, she makes an impact both off ensively
and defensively for the Eagles. Her lacrosse
IQ—according to Walker, it’s “off the charts,”
and Margolis herself feels it is her biggest
strength—has created a multitude of scoring
opportunities for the past three years. Earlier
this season, she notched her 100th career
point as an Eagle during a 19-6 victory over
Holy Cross. She earned the record after her
fi rst of three points in the decisive win over
the Crusaders.
So with a naturally competitive approach
to the sport, a high lacrosse IQ, and consider-
able talent, it’s a no-brainer that Margolis is
serving as one of BC’s captains this year. Every-
one who knows her agrees that she’s a natural
leader. She brings her competitive nature to
the fi eld every day—regardless of whether it’s
just a regular practice or an all-important game
against Syracuse—and she always has.
The example Margolis set for other
Carolina Fever players still resonates to this
day. O’Mara said that current players in the
program still talk about her, four years after
she graduated from the team.
“[Th e players] still look up to her,” she
said. “She set an example for us. Without
ever being asked to be a standard-bearer, she
always was.”
2016 is Margolis’ last chance to bring a
NCAA Championship trophy home to BC.
She’s had an incredible career with the Eagles.
Leading the team to victory in the national
championship will ensure that she’ll be im-
mortalized here on the Heights, just like she
is in the Carolina Fever program.
And she wants it bad.
This year, an Inside Lacrosse pre-
season poll ranked Margolis as
a Second Team All-American.
Th is is just the latest in a long list of accolades
she has accumulated throughout her lacrosse
career. In high school she was twice named
All-American, to go along with the numerous
awards given by her athletic conference as well
as newspapers. In addition, the Intercollegiate
Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association voted
her as a Second Team Northeast Region player
last year. If these accolades aren’t enough, Mar-
golis and teammate Sarah Mannelly are on the
Tewaaraton Award watch list for 2016.
Th e awards may be nice, but Hillary says
they are not all-important to her sister.
“I think Caroline is mainly a self-motiva-
tor,” she said. “She won’t settle for anything less
than her personal best.”
But there is one award that would excite
anyone, and Margolis is no exception. Th e
thought of winning the national championship
is her biggest motivation this season, and it
pushes her to perform her very best in every
practice and game.
Back in 2007, when Margolis fi rst started
playing lacrosse, it was far-fetched to think
that one day she would be a national cham-
pion. She took up the sport at the request of
her best friend. Th e beginning of her lacrosse
career—passing on the beach with her sis-
ter—didn’t show any particular promise. But
in the years since, Margolis has excelled. She
has passed through Ravenscroft and Carolina
Fever to leave an admirable legacy behind in
North Carolina. She has made her impact
on the Eagles. Now, as a senior, she has a few
goals in mind. She wants that rematch with
Syracuse. She defi nitely wants a rematch with
North Carolina.
She wants a national championship.
Caroline Margolis is versatile and
dangerous. All she’s missing is a trophy.
ANNABEL STEELE
ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS ARCHIVE
624163
2264
Career goals
Career assists
Career ground
balls
Career caused
turnovers
Career draw
controls
GRACE TOURVILLE / THE OBSERVER
THE HEIGHTS FEB. 25, 20168 SPRING SPORTS PREVIEW SOFTBALL
I see us going to Regionals.Tatiana Cortez’ words garnered the nods of her two
teammates, Annie Murphy and Allyson Frei, and head coach Ashley Obrest. Th ese four members of Boston College softball believed this prediction to its very core, and it was going to be the driving force behind the season. Frei echoed the statement, saying that the tough schedule of the season would better prepare them for what lies ahead in postseason play. Th ey spoke succinctly, both displaying determination in the matter-of-factness of their words.
Th e way they all looked, sitting at the table and talking about it, it was like they were staring down Virginia Tech and Florida State right then and there. Th ey might as well have been wearing their uniforms.
Th is season, there would be no disappointing 6-16 conference record. No dismal bubble was going to bring the team down this time (even though sometimes, it really does come down).
Th is season, there are a few tournaments to win.But fi rst, it’s important to know where these Eagles are com-
ing from.
BC softball’s most recent bid for NCAA Regionals was in 2003, when the Eagles still played ball against Big East teams. Th e seasons when the team clinched a spot
in Regionals saw it winning more than 35 games and dominating conference play.
Once 2006 came around and the fi rst season in the ACC com-menced, BC was expected to perform at a new level. Th ere have been seven losing seasons since the switch to the ACC, with the worst and most recent in 2013, when the Eagles went 14-38. Th at was the same year that the bubble, which covers Alumni Stadium for spring sports to practice, collapsed under the weight of the snow piled on the top. With no place to continue their training, the Eagles had to travel to neighboring areas, often practicing late into the night and travelling back to campus even later. It’s no surprise that the program faltered under those circumstances.
BC’s most recent season ended with a 27-24 record, along with the aforementioned 6-16 conference performance. There was no regionals in sight—the Eagles would lose their fi nal game in the ACC Quarterfi nals against Florida State, a team that went 20-3 in the conference and put up a good fight in the NCAA Super Regional round.
Obrest, with the rest of the team behind her, wants this year to be different. With five new Eagles joining the team, a tough sched-ule early on in the sea-son, and revitalized hitting, she wants to take the girls to where they have never gone be-fore—at least not in the ACC. She believes she has the tools to do so.
There are fi ve freshmen donning uniforms for BC this season, and,
when added to the six sophomores already on the team, the 18-player roster is heavily stacked to the
The Eagles want to make it to Regionals. Fresh blood, a challenging schedule, and more consistent hitting will make it happen.
BABY STEPS
SHANNON KELLY
HEIGHTS EDITORyounger side. Th e most impressive of the new recruits include Carly Severini and Loren “Lexie” DiEmmanuele. Severini is a power hitter who has already earned her fi rst double in collegiate play and demonstrates the potential to put runs on the board. DiEmmanuele, with a .355 batting average over her fi rst 10 games, displays the type of consistent hitting that Obrest needs. Th e fi ve steals she has earned show a speed that the team needs to make hits count, as well as a deft understanding of being a part of an aggressive off ense.
But the infl ux of new additions also proves a paradox. Last season, 12 of the 17 players on the roster were freshmen and sophomores, and Obrest explained that the source of the last year’s problems was youth. Her concern about the lack of experience in last season’s freshmen, however, does not seem to carry over into this one, and looks upon the youngest on the team as extra options when in a bind. Th e fact that DiEmmanuele has started in nine of her 10 appearances shows that she may not be an extra option, but rather, an already integral part of the team.
BC softball of 2015 saw a .250 batting average, and its combined opponents’ average was .262. By comparison, Florida State, the ACC’s best in regular-season play, had an average of .289.
Th e diff erence is huge. In it lies a 49-14 season, an automatic bid to the fi rst round of the College World Series, a trip to Regionals.
Obrest knew going into the season that the hitting would have to change. Last season, the team was plagued by failure to use hitting to its advantage, particularly when a player couldn’t come up with the hit needed to bring a runner in. Th e failure to use situational hitting left runs unscored and games lost.
Ten games, including the ACC Quarterfi nal against Florida State, came down to a one- or two-run defi cit to tie it up. Obrest wanted to not only fi x the situational hitting, but also up the consistency of the hitters. She has combatted this by putting the team through more live hitting and instilling a positive outlook for when at-bats have not come as easily.
“Hitting’s contagious, too, so even if kids are stringing their good at-bats but not necessarily getting on base it gives the next person some confi dence,” Obrest said.
Th e freshmen also have Murphy and Cortez to look up to, two of the strongest hitters on the team from last season. Murphy led the team with .310, and Cortez was right behind her with .304. If you want to learn about consistency, just look to them. Th ey combined for 66 RBIs, so they know how to keep players from getting stranded on second or third. Th ey make
runs happen.
Th ough Cortez has struggled so far this season—her average is one of the lowest at .130—Murphy has picked right back up with .310, contribut-ing heavily to the Eagles’ uptick in their average, with the team’s collective batting average at .255. Th e biggest contributors are freshman Allyson Moore, who has an average of .400, and sophomore Chloe Sharabba with an average of .379. To have the best bats come from younger players confi rms Obrest’s idea that this season, there is no problem with youth. Th ese players have already developed enough in preseason to be prolifi c contributions to the team.
The Eagles have already played 10 games in two tournaments to start the season, and their 4-6 record so far is unconvinc-ing. Frei, who was especially looking forward to matchups
with Maryland and University of Oregon, faced a 9-1 victory against the former and a 4-0 loss against the latter. Despite playing in the Big Ten, Maryland is fairly comparable to BC, so the win displays a preparedness to dominate for in-conference games.
Oregon, on the other hand, fi nds itself in the Pac-12, the most domi-nant conference in the Women’s College World Series, with 24 of the 33 total World Series won by a member of the Pac-12. Th e last four World Series, however, have been dominated by SEC teams, which displays a downturn for Pac-12 teams. BC’s loss against Oregon was not by a large margin, so it has the potential to play up to snuff against teams in the NCAA Tournament.
With their home fi eld too wet to play on, the Eagles will have to travel for the fi rst part of the season. Th eir home opener won’t happen until Mar. 23, over a month into the season. It’s a long time to be missing home-fi eld advantage and to lack the comfort of familiarity on the diamond. Th e fi rst ACC games, against Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, come one after the other. Before that, BC will get used to playing teams in the SEC, including Auburn, which made it to the College World Series last season.
Frontloading a schedule with heavy-hitting opponents is an interesting strategy. With scheduling as the one thing she can control, Obrest believes that the move will force the girls into better habits, and by seeing the level of play that dominant squads present, will up their own game. Based on the smattering that the Eagles have already faced so far, this may backfi re on them. But once they slip into ACC play, Obrest may get the reaction she was hoping for.
Murphy said it best: “Our schedule’s tough, but I think this team this year is tough, too.”
The path to Regionals is a long one,
and the beginning step has two roads. Th e Eagles
can either win the ACC Tournament so that they
receive an automatic bid, or they can be selected by
committee. From there, there are two rounds until Regional finals, during which they will face tough opponents, most likely including Fordham and James Madison.
Competition like that should be taken seriously. But
this year, BC isn’t a team that’s going to take
things lying down. After a 12-year drought, the Eagles
want to get to Regionals. Why not the World Series? Why not
win the whole damn thing?Th ey say the journey of 1,000
miles begins with a single step. Baby steps.
EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF