As Mike Murphy’s fly ball settled into the Boston College right fielder’s glove, the third inning ended in yesterday’s Terrapin baseball game at Shipley Field.
But Murphy, not even bothering to finish his trot toward first base, turned around and started yelling across the diamond at Boston College catcher Tony Sanchez.
The uneasy tension players noted from the start of the series finally bubbled over. The benches then cleared as teammates restrained Murphy and Sanchez, who were later ejected.
The fight for a spot in the ACC Tournament nearly turned into a literal fight.
Though no punches were thrown in the deciding game of the Terps’ first home conference series of the season, Boston College (13-6, 4-3 ACC) landed the final blow, scoring a 5-2 win behind strong work from its bullpen.
The Eagles came up with four two-out RBI hits, while the Terps (10-11, 3-6) failed to come through in pressure situations. The home team had baserunners in seven of nine innings, but five Boston College relievers yielded no runs on five hits in 7.2 innings.
“It was definitely a missed opportunity,” left fielder Gerry Spessard said. “We just couldn’t get things going.”
After a pair of games to start the series, including Saturday’s 4-3 walk-off Terp victory, Spessard said the Eagles’ dugout chatter was wearing on the more “even-keeled” Terps.
In the third, it all came to a head. Both benches briefly cleared as teammates rushed to defend Murphy and Sanchez. It ultimately ended with Murphy being picked up by the waist by a teammate and physically removed from the horde and Sanchez being pulled to his dugout by three teammates and a coach.
After taking the field for the top of the next inning, Murphy was informed of his ejection and angrily threw his glove into the dugout. Terp fans cheered as Sanchez reacted to his ejection by kicking over a cooler in the dugout and grew louder as Murphy more calmly made his way out of the stadium.
“I just think guys were getting intense and tempers flared a little bit,” said Terp coach Terry Rupp, who added he didn’t think Murphy would face additional suspension. “We’re lucky nothing happened out of that.”
It was a disappointing end to the weekend for the Terps, who won a series at N.C. State last weekend. Even after their show of emotion for Murphy, the Terp offense continued to cool. The Terps knocked Boston College starter Mike Dennhardt from the game in their two-run second inning, but failed to come up with any other timely hits.
They got the tying run to the plate with no outs in the ninth before Boston College closer Mike Belfiore retired three straight Terps to end the game.
“If we execute, we win that game,” center fielder Dan Benick said. “I have no explanation why that didn’t happen.”
The Eagles, on the other hand, found a way to get it done. A pair of two-out RBI doubles in the third gave Boston College the lead for good, and they extended it with a pair of runs against the Terp bullpen.
“They kinda got under our skin and got us all fired up,” Spessard said. “We couldn’t play to our ability. That kinda worked against us.”
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