quick update: first, I want to thank both i386 and Rollo for getting me over the finish line!
I used some jumper cables to connect the 16pin clip to the ch341a dongle.
flashed the latest bmc fw (.27) and it was able to get humpty dumpty back together again.
I did not need to manually add the mac to the bmc interface as it seemed to have retained that.
I did need to use ipmitool to reset the admin pwd.
see attached for my "frankin-cable"