By Peter Conroy
Heavy rains followed up a first-day-of-spring snowstorm that dumped 8.5 inches of snow in the Boston area, causing the Northeastern baseball team to move its home opener from last Saturday to today.
The Huskies will take on Holy Cross, a team that currently boasts a record of 1-5-1 and a team batting average of .181. Because the Huskies also have a three-game weekend series against Harvard ahead of them, all three of the regular starters, Justin Hedrick, Jordan Thompson and Devin Monds are likely to see time on the mound. Freshman Adam Ottavino, who has been pitching solidly as of late, may also toe the rubber.
“[Holy Cross] will definitely be a good team for starting our season up here,” Hedrick said. “Hopefully we’ll go in there and push them around like we should, make a statement for the northeast teams up here that we are for real this year.”
By spreading out the pitching duties against Holy Cross, coach Neil McPhee hopes to have his starters fresh for a doubleheader Saturday against Harvard at Friedman Diamond (at Parsons Field) followed by an away game at the Crimson’s O’Donnell Field.
The Crimson have been involved in some shootouts, and currently sport a 5-3 record. They won their first game of the season in Lubbock, Texas, beating Air, 25-20, and following that with an 18-6 win over Texas Tech. The Red Raiders came back the next night to beat Harvard by more than three touchdowns, 30-8. In a swing through Louisiana, the Crimson lost a pair of games by scores of 14-5 and 23-9.
The high scores can be attributed to Harvard trying out a variety of new pitchers before the start of the season, but Hedrick is confident that the in-city rivals won’t be running up the scores against the Huskies.
“I’d like to say I don’t think they’ll be putting up 30 runs against our top three,” he said.
The Huskies are the preseason favorite to win the America East for the second time in a row. They will open their home season with the reigning AE player of the week, Jeff Heriot. The junior co-captain has batted at a .457 clip, with a .771 slugging percentage. Heriot also had three triples in the week-span, including one off North Carolina State’s returning All-American, Michael Rogers.
Northeastern twice gave N.C. State all they could handle, as the No. 20 team in the country could only manage one-run victories over the Huskies.
Temperatures are predicted to be in the low-50’s for both Wednesday’s opener and the weekend series, a situation that Hedrick thinks will favor the pitchers.
“(The cold will) affect the hitters more than the pitchers,” said the Omaha native. “Swinging bats in the cold weather, they don’t have as much pop, and they hurt sometimes when you get jammed. I’ve been playing in this for the past three years. Sometimes down in Florida, with the humidity, the ball gets wet and it sticks to your hands. You can’t do as much stuff with it. Up here I can do a lot more with it because it flows out of my hand.”
With a southern tune-up under their belt that included games against the Red Sox and N.C. State, the Huskies will begin their northern campaign in still-frozen New England.
“It was awesome, it was great. I think it showed us what we are capable of doing,” said Hedrick of the team’s yearly Florida trip. “It definitely proves what we thought all along, how good we are going to be this year.”
Starting today, NU students will have a chance to see just how good the defending AE champs are.
Wednesday’s 2:30 tilt with Holy Cross will be followed on Saturday by the Harvard doubleheader at NU beginning at noon.
On Sunday, the Huskies will meet Harvard on the road starting at noon.
