By Zolan Kannos-Youngs, News Correspondent
After a 7-6 loss in their season opener Friday, the baseball team wrapped up its weekend road trip against Jacksonville University by splitting a Saturday double header. Junior pitcher Kevin Ferguson picked up an 8-1 win after Northeastern lost the first game of the back-to-back, 1-4.
The Dolphins started the first of Saturday’s games aggressively after Northeastern’s starting junior pitcher Dylan Maki walked sophomore infielder Taylor Ratliff. Sophomore pitcher Chris Anderson drove him home on an RBI single. Senior outfielder Jonathan Murphy extended Jacksonville’s lead later in the inning after driving in two runs on a double.
From that point, Maki surrendered one more run from a sacrifice fly by Brett Walker in the fifth inning. The Huskies only scored one run off freshman pitcher Alex McRae on a sacrifice fly by sophomore outfielder Connor Lyons that brought home freshman Jason Vosler.
“All of our starters threw well,” McPhee said. “Dylan [Maki] started a little slow and then just gave up one run for the rest of his game and kept us in the ball game. The key for pitching on this weekend was certainly our starters but with that said, the bullpen did its job.”
Sophomore Sean Lyons pitched the seventh and the eighth innings as a reliever.
“They pitched well, they didn’t give up extra runs, they kept us where we needed to be during the late stages of the game,” McPhee said. “That’s what a bullpen is supposed to do.”
The Huskies’ pitching showed its capabilities in the last game of the series with junior Kevin Ferguson taking the mound for the first time this season. The junior went eight innings, allowing only one run on four hits.
“We knew that they were very aggressive fastball hitters so what me and [Northeastern Assistant] Coach [Kevin] Cobb decided to go with was to pitch them backwards which is pitch them off-speed and come back later with fastballs,” Ferguson said.
Later that night, the Huskies came out of the gate swinging, putting up three runs in the first inning. Barbosa led off with a triple in the game’s first at-bat. Later in the inning, captain senior catcher Tucker Roader took advantage of loaded bases with an RBI groundout. The Huskies scored a third run in the first inning when Fonseca scored after Hart reached on an error.
The Huskies picked up another four runs throughout the bout and their final run in the ninth when junior catcher John Puttress hit a double and came around to score on a wild pitch by sophomore Adam Maxon, to make it a 8-1 win.
“It comes down to preparation. You have to keep your head in to every game whether you’re playing or not. Were always told to be ready to play you never know when your opportunities going to come,” Roader said.
While he recognized his team “competed well out of the gate,” he also said the Huskies will need to improve on going further into future series.
“We need to do a better job getting some big hits when guys are in scoring position,” Roader said. “We put ourselves in a position to be in every game and have a chance to win and we just need to capitalize on opportunities with guys on base a little bit more.”
Sophomore second baseman Aaron Barbosa and Puttress propelled the Husky offense throughout the series, Barbosa going 7 for 14 with a triple and Puttress going 9 for 13 with two doubles and an RBI.
“It was a very good start to this season,” McPhee said. “It was a very strong effort in terms of how we play the game.”
Earlier in the weekend, senior captain utility player Matt Miller started off Friday’s game by driving Barbosa in with a single to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. However, power hitter junior first baseman and outfielder Adam Brett Walker responded in the bottom of the inning by hitting a two-run home run. The Huskies tied the game in the third when freshman first baseman Rob Fonseca hit a sacrifice fly to score Barbosa from third base.
Jacksonville added four runs in the sixth and led 6-3 going into the seventh inning until Fonseca brought Barbosa home again for his second career RBI. Miller scored on a passed ball to bring the Huskies within one. Northeastern loaded the bases and sophomore shortstop Oliver Hart flied out to right field, ending the inning.
“[Fonseca] actually, over the weekend, proved that he’s a game player,” McPhee said. “Rob was one of the ones that showed division one baseball, as a freshman, is not intimidating to him.”
Fonseca continued to produce in the ninth inning by reaching on an error. A fielder’s choice put junior infielder Ricky Salvucci on base and a Dolphins’ throwing error moved him into scoring position to set up the game-tying RBI by Puttress.
Jacksonville walked off with the first win of the series with an RBI single by senior outfielder Jonathan Murphy bringing in sophomore infielder Taylor Ratliff for the game-winning run in the 10th inning Friday.
Senior pitcher Andrew Leenhouts went five and two-thirds innings in his first start, allowing six runs on eight hits and striking out four.
“It becomes a bit frustrating because it’s a ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ won that game,” McPhee said. “Legitimately, we could’ve won the weekend two out of three but overall, the thing I’m most pleased with are the way we played the game, the way we came ready to play the game and the fundamentals were sound.”
The next time the Huskies take the field, it will be against the Boston Red Sox in Fort Myers, Fla., for their annual exhibition match Saturday at 2:35 p.m.
