Norwood's Gorman, Boston College Baseball Teammates to Face Boston Red Sox

Norwood's John Gorman and his Boston College baseball teammates will be facing the Boston Red Sox Thursday in the second game of a doubleheader in Fort Myers. Boston will play Northeastern at 1:30 p.m., followed 40 minutes after that game ends, BC will play the Red Sox.

A sophomore pitcher-infielder, Gorman was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 50th round of the Major League Draft two years out of Catholic Memorial High School.

Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell said on mlb.com that he would be staying away from his starting pitchers for the two exhibition games against the college teams, instead going to his relievers.

"On the two college games, that will serve as somewhat of an intrasquad type game for us," said Farrell on the team's website. "You'll see a number of guys go to the mound for one inning. Mostly guys that are in camp as relievers on those first two days. You'll probably see 14 different pitchers run to the mound on Thursday."

Farrell is expected to split the position players into different groups to play in the two exhibition games. 

As a freshman, Gorman pitched out of the bullpen for the Eagles with an 0-1 record and a 3.76 earned run average in 22 appearance. He also had 30 strikeouts.

This year, he is looking to move into the starting rotation and worked five innings in the second game of the season, a 7-6 win over Elon in North Carolina. He didn't get the decision, but only allowed one run, while striking out two batters and walking four. Gorman, who is also a first baseman, have been successful in the bullpen and is looking for the same results as a starter.

"One of the exciting things this year is we are at the correct number of pitchers," BC pitching coach Scott Friedholm said on the bceagles.com. "We have some depth. We're going to be able to make some moves based on match-ups. Some of the younger guys are really coming along and pushing the older guys. If it comes to positions or roles, we're not quite established yet because it's early and we need to see how some of the younger players are going to react in a game situation.

"Gorman and (Nick) Poore have had success out of the bullpen for us and we know what we are going to get every single time out of the bullpen from them, which is our safety blanket,' Friedholm added. "It's nice to have, but we got to be able to get to them first."