JD Ogden Dominates as Boston College Evens Series Against Wake Forest

Photo Credit: Ethan Roy/BC Athletics

Boston College grinded out a tough, ugly 7-2 win on Friday evening at Wake Forest to even the series heading into Saturday’s finale. The Eagles capitalized on a number of Demon Deacon mistakes and rode a dominant JD Ogden relief outing the rest of the way. After being swept on the road at Florida State and Louisville, BC has an opportunity on Saturday to win their first ACC road series since their upset of Virginia in Charlottesville on the first weekend of conference play.

After a tough luck 5-4 loss on Thursday to open the series, Boston College turned to freshman Brady Miller to start in game two. The 6’5” freshman has seen mixed results over his first year of collegiate baseball, but entered the game riding a 6.2 innings scoreless streak after outstanding outings against Dartmouth and Notre Dame.

The lefty first year wasn’t at his best this year, but he was able to walk the tightrope and keep his team in the game over the first three innings. Wake Forest threatened a big inning in the 2nd after Jack Winnay lined a double to left and Matt Scannell reached after a dropped fly ball in right, but Miller was able to limit the damage and hold the Deacs to just two runs. The freshman stranded six Wake Forest baserunners in his three innings of work.

“In those spots, it gets overlooked that he keeps the next one off the board,” said BC head coach Todd Interdonato. “We dropped the fly ball in right, seemingly out of nowhere, then all of a sudden he's walking guys, and it's bases loaded. And you're just like, ‘this could be 7-0 before you blink.’ He was able to pitch through some stuff and was able to get out of there after three and only gave up two.”

Brady Miller was instrumental in preventing the big inning and allowing the Eagles to stay within striking distance. When BC keeps the game close early, they’re able to utilize their dynamic running game instead of playing catch-up in the face of large deficits. The offense had been stifled by Wake starter Logan Lunceford over the first four innings as just three Eagle baserunners reached base while striking out five times. But the running game would once again prove pivotal for Todd Interdonato’s squad.

The game turned on its head in the 5th after Eagle shortstop Sam McNulty led off with a double to right before Josiah Ragsdale used his game-changing speed to reach on an error with one out. A wild pitch by Lunceford cut the Wake Forest lead in half and then Ragsdale and Patrick Roche– who’d reached on a walk– executed a double steal to perfection to put themselves in scoring position. After a Jack Toomey walk, what had gone from a cruise control outing for Lunceford became a bases loaded opportunity to take the lead for BC.

Interdonato, whose Wofford teams were well known for aggressive baserunning, called for a straight steal of home.

“We felt like we had a chance there based on some stuff that we saw going into the weekend,” the second year BC coach said. “[Ragsdale] was over at third base and he’s an elite runner with a lefty on the mound. It’s a little less dangerous to do it against the lefty, because once he's in the windup, his back is to you. And Sam had just scored on the passed ball and [Kyle] Wolff was already in an 0-1 hole. So, I felt like it was worth the shot. It worked out.”

As Wake reliever Joe Ariola began his wind-up and Ragsdale broke for home, batter Kyle Wolff squared to show bunt, then pulled it back as catcher Jimmy Keenan came forward to receive the pitch and meet the runner. The pitch beat Ragsdale to the plate but home plate umpire Jon Merry called catcher’s interference, causing an uproar from both the home dugout and Wake Forest faithful in the stands. While frustrating, it was the correct call as Keenan stepped in front of Wolff to receive the pitch as the batter was pulling the bunt back. Had Wolff been executing a slash play where he swings after showing bunt, Keenan would’ve been in the path of the bat.

Interdonato commented on the call post-game. “Could you imagine if Kyle would have swung?  If Kyle takes a full swing, like that is, that's just going to be a really, really, really dangerous position to put [Keenan] in. And certainly we don't want that, right? It’s a safety issue.”

Boston College would end up plating two more runs in that 5th inning on bases loaded walks to take a 4-2 lead and never looked back thanks to an incredible relief performance by JD Ogden, who relieved Miller to start the 4th inning. Interdonato and pitching coach Ryan Forrest’s plan was for Ogden to give them one, maybe two innings before bringing in another arm. Instead, the graduate transfer went the distance with a career high six shutout innings to deliver the win. 

Ogden hadn’t pitched more than three innings in a game since March of 2023 when he tossed 4.1 innings against Brown while playing for Columbia. His previous career high was 5.2 innings thrown against Harvard on April 17, 2022 when he was a sophomore. The 6’5”, 200 pound left-hander entered Friday’s game with a season ERA of 5.66 and lowered over a full run to 4.39.

“Probably the best relief performance I've seen in my short time at BC and one of the better I've seen in my career,” Interdonato said of the performance.

Ogden didn’t have his best stuff at first, primarily relying on a dynamic fastball from a three-quarters arm slot that sat 92-to-94 MPH. At one point in the 4th inning, he dialed it up to 97 against Marek Houston and induced a lazy fly out to right field. After a few innings, Ogden was able to find and locate his slider, allowing him to keep the potent Wake Forest off balance for a few more innings.

Interdonato was planning to take Ogden out after the 7th, but when Boston College added three insurance runs, he decided to ride the southpaw a little longer, especially when factoring in the strong control and unwavering velocity after four innings of work. The BC coach also considered the mental impact that removing Ogden would have on Wake Forest.

“I was thinking about it from their perspective, Interdonato explained. “They probably wanted us to make a move. That was my thought process, which I don't usually think about that a lot.” 

Despite Ogden’s dominance, he didn’t get a strikeout until the 8th inning when he started feeling the slider. The White Bear Lake, Minnesota native was able to strike out Luke Costello, Dalton Wentz, and Jack Winnay in consecutive at-bats on 14 pitches. 

“I was waiting for a strikeout and then I started throwing the slider a little harder,” Ogden said of that 8th inning. “And I got some whiffs on it.”

Ogden credited the coaching staff’s pitching plan that encouraged him to be aggressive against Wake Forest. Interdonato cited the smaller ballpark and wind conditions, explaining that pitchers weren’t going to find success nibbling around the zone. The veteran southpaw took that to heart, attacking the zone and challenging the Wake Forest hitters with his powerful fastball. 

“I was just throwing fastballs down the middle, throwing sinkers down the middle and then working the slider off the outside,” Ogden said. “I just attacked them with the same mindset as I would any other game.”

It was an ugly win for Boston College as they won despite amassing just three hits. They were able to take advantage of great pitching and a brutal performance by Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons walked 12 batters, hit two more, and had two errors defensively. Deac pitching also had two balks and two wild pitches. But BC doesn’t mind using toughness and grit to grind out a win.

“It's Northeast baseball and I think this win exemplifies that,” said Ogden.

Boston College will go for the road series win today at noon against Wake Forest.