In case you haven’t left your dorm since arriving in September, or haven’t turned on a television during your stay in Boston, here’s a news flash: this town loves baseball. Spring, summer, fall, winter, this town’s pulse beats along with the sport.
Two weeks ago, the winter seasons for men’s and women’s basketball and hockey came to a close, officially ushering in the spring season for Northeastern sports fans.
More specifically, Boston hinges on the rise and fall of Red Sox baseball. But in a college town like this, there are plenty of baseball teams for the public to follow.
Our Huskies finished last season 18-33 and tied for eighth in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play with Virginia Commonwealth and Hofstra at 12-18. But I’m going to tell you why this team should rise near the top of the CAA standings come season’s end.
First off, history is on our side. The program has had its highs and lows, especially in recent years. Northeastern (which sits at 8-4 this season) was 18-33 last year, but 13-31 the year befotr. Only a year earlier, the team was 28-25, and was tied for second place in CAA with Old Dominion at 13-11. History says this team should continue to trend upward.
The second reason is the team’s experience and talent. Head coach Neil McPhee and staff have done a great job of recruiting and developing talent that competes against some equipped conference opponents.
The roster currently has four players batting over .350 with a minimum of 25 at-bats. One of those four is sophomore Aaron Barbosa, the lone Husky voted to the Preseason All-CAA team, who is continuing to play great after a phenomenal freshman campaign in which he averaged .335 with 31 runs and 13 RBIs.
A key addition this off-season was freshman Rob Fonseca, who has already made an impact with the Huskies. In 12 games at first base, Fonseca has only two errors while averaging .367 with a home run and five runs batted.
Senior Andrew Leenhouts, the current CAA Pitcher of the Week and one of the team’s aces, came out gunning last weekend against William & Mary, arguably one of the hottest teams in the CAA, who won seven in a row and currently boasting a 2.38 ERA. On the mound against the Tribe, Leenhouts pitched a complete game, four-hit shutout in an 8-0 victory Friday, good for the first conference win of the season for Northeastern.
Junior Kevin Ferguson gave an equally impressive performance in the rubber match of the series, pitching seven innings, allowing only three hits and one earned run Sunday as the Huskies went on to take two of three from the Tribe. Ferguson now sits at 2-0 with a strong 1.71 earned run average through three starts.
The final reason is because the experts are always wrong. You’ll notice it when March Madness begins this weekend, and the guys who get paid to talk shop on television get their brackets shredded. It’s the same reason NHL columnist Pierre LeBrun had the San Jose Sharks winning the Stanley Cup: Because experts are hardly ever right.
When the CAA released its preseason predicted order of finish, it had the Huskies dead last. The Huskies received 19 of a possible 121 points, eight fewer than Hofstra, a team that has been in last place or second-to-last place five of the past six years.
That same panel of “experts” picked James Madison to repeat as CAA champions. While we still have almost a full season to play, JMU has lost five straight and sits in the basement of Colonial at 5-10-1 (0-3 in league play).
I’m not saying Northeastern is going to be the one running the table this year, but there’s some real talent on this team, enough to get the Huskies into the postseason, and enough to draw a crowd on a warm spring afternoon.
Besides, front-row tickets to a Husky baseball game are about $80 cheaper than the scalped nosebleeds on Yawkey Way. That’s a lot of Boloco.
– Andy MacDougall can be reached at [email protected]
