For Boston College, the goal is simple: Get to Omaha.
That’s easier said than done, though, for a program that’s only made the NCAA Tournament eight times since 1949. It takes a special culture over an extended period of time for a team with that
kind of track record to break the stigma and separate itself from its history. Ahead of coach Mike Gambino’s 11th season at the helm, the Eagles’ process of finding and developing uber-competitive players with those intangibles is paying dividends in outfielder Sal Frelick, infielder Cody Morissette and righthander Mason Pelio.
BC’s three standout third-year sophomores were all voted Preseason All-Americans by major league scouting directors—Frelick and Morissette on the second team and Pelio on the third. They all project to be selected in the first two rounds of the draft in July, but that isn’t distracting them from the opportunity ahead in the 2021 season.
“Looking at this year, even our fall scrimmages were extremely competitive,” Morissette said. “It’s been the inner competition that’s really helped us develop. This year, especially with us being the leaders and the freshmen and sophomores looking up to us, I feel like that’s why we’re able to develop.”
BC reached the College World Series three times from 1960 to ’67, but then didn’t reach the NCAA Tournament again until 2009. Gambino returned to his alma mater a year later as head coach and guided the Eagles back to regionals in 2016. They won the Oxford Regional as a No. 3 seed, beating Utah and Tulane to advance to super regionals for the first time in program history.
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