By Jimmy Brooks, News Staff
Despite being engaged in a 1-1 tie with Boston College for five innings in the first round of the Beanpot, the baseball team lost to the Eagles 6-1 at Friedman Diamond.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Eagles teed off on Northeastern senior pitcher JT Ross and scored four runs. Sophomore Chris Carmain came in to relieve Ross and gave up the final run, and the Huskies were unable to respond from the five-run deficit.
Although the Hukies dropped their second consecutive game, there was still good to be found in the game. Freshman second baseman Aaron Barbosa went 4-4 with a stolen base, his 15th of the year.
Just days earlier, the Huskies squared off against Virginia Commonwealth in Richmond, Va. Though looking to extend it’s six-game winning streak, the Huskies were unable to do so, falling to the Rams 4-3 Sunday.
Junior co-captain Matt Miller was the spark plug offensively, collecting all three runs batted in for the Huskies, and keeping the squad playing late in the game with his eighth inning single that scored two points, closing a 4-1 gap to 4-3.
Starting senior pitcher Brandon McNelis held his own, allowing four runs in 6 2/3 innings. Despite two critical performances by two players who have thrived this season, the Huskies fell short.
“It was a very well-played game overall,” head coach Neil McPhee said. “Brandon [McNelis] pitched a very strong game again. He gave up two single home runs, but we battled back. Two out of three wins in a series, that’s pretty good baseball.”
McPhee also spoke of sophomore catcher John Puttress’ near-heroics. With the bases loaded in the eighth inning, a single would have put the Huskies in the lead. Puttress hit a well-placed grounder to the hole between first and second, but VCU first baseman Michael Caddell snared the ball to end the inning and end the imminent Husky threat.
Yet, much like the men’s basketball team beat VCU’s final four basketball squad, the Huskies managed to get the best of VCU’s baseball team overall, winning the series by capturing a pair of wins during a doubleheader on Saturday.
“It definitely helped us a lot,” Barbosa said. “We were on a four-game winning streak at that point. It really helped us out because it moved us up in the [CAA] standings. It’s putting us right in the middle of the race.”
In the squad’s first game of the day, senior co-captain Les Williams pitched lights out, striking out nine batters while allowing just two earned runs, good for his second -straight complete game and his third win on the year.
“The way Les [Williams] has pitched to lead off the weekend, it just gives everybody confidence,” McPhee said. “It really gets the adrenaline flowing for the next two days. You could say that Les has been the key to each weekend.”
Williams was recognized with the Herbert Gallagher Award, which recognizes Northeastern’s top senior male scholar-athlete at the Senior Awards banquet April 14,
Williams has found a way to thrive academically, despite putting in countless hours refining his pitching game. Williams is currently completing a double major in criminal justice and psychology and boasts a 3.4 GPA.
On a day where the Huskies proved to be unbeaten, Williams was not the only player to succeed.
Offensively, Barbosa extended his hit streak to twelve games, going 2-4 with an RBI and a triple.
“[The hit streak] is pretty cool, looking back at it,” Barbosa said. “I really try not to pay attention to it, I really didn’t even know about it while it was going on. Just trying to pick up wins and get hits and score runs, that’s all I really care about.”
The Huskies finished up the first game with a 5-2 victory.
Game two of the double-header proved the same results in the victory column, although Barbosa’s hit streak was snapped at 12 games.
Northeastern defeated VCU 2-0, partially in thanks to freshman outfielder Connor Lyons’ pressure-relieving ninth inning single that scored sophomore shortstop Pete Castoldi, increasing the lead to 2-0.
“Coming back to the dugout we were up 1-0,” Barbosa said. “It’s so much more comfortable with a two-run lead. We were just really hoping we could pick that run up, and that hit was just what we needed.”
Junior pitcher Drew Leenhouts was solid, hurling 8 1/3 scoreless innings, picking up his second win of the year. Sophomore pitcher Dylan Maki ensured a Husky victory, closing out the gam. Maki recorded the final two outs, good for his third save of the year.
Northeastern now holds a 11-22 overall record (6-9 CAA), much improved from its anemic 5-21 record just two weeks ago.
The Huskies look to start up another winning streak this weekend, as they have a series of three games vs. Georgia State at Friedman Diamond this weekend.
