By Zolan Kanno-Youngs, News Correspondent
Sophomore pitcher Matt Cook picked up his second loss of the season after lasting just two innings in the Huskies’ 7-1 loss to University of Rhode Island Tuesday. Cook gave up six runs on six hits in the loss.
“One of the things we talk about with baseball and to the guys a lot is having short term memory which means you’ve got to be able to put things behind you. This is a game of a lot of failures,” assistant coach Mike Glavine said. “It hurts and it should bother us but we’ve got to be able to move on.”
With the loss, the Huskies drop to 12-11 on the season (3-6 Colonial Athletic Association), having lost four straight games.
Head coach Neil McPhee served a one-game suspension after being thrown out of Sunday’s game against Virgina Commonwealth University for arguing with the home plate umpire.
On the offensive end, senior infielder Matt Miller went 3-4 in the loss with a double.
The Huskies got on the board in the top of the first thanks to Rams’ pitcher Liam O’Sullivan’s wild throw. With the bases loaded, a walk to first baseman Rob Fonecas forced home junior designated hitter John Puttress from third, the first and only Northeastern run of the night. Sophomore center fielder Connor Lyons struck out looking with the bases loaded to end the inning.
“The issue really is finding holes when we have runners in scoring position,” Glavine said. “Some of that is luck and some of that is having better at bats. It’s a combination of those two things right now.”
URI tied the game in the bottom of the inning when sophomore catcher Pat Quinn grounded out to first scoring sophomore outfielder Jeff Roy, who drew a walk earlier in the inning.
In the second inning, Cook hit senior designated hitter Greg Annarummo, who then advanced to second thanks to a bunt by sophomore infielder Joe Landi. After Annarummo stole third, Roy brought him home on an RBI double. The Rams got two more runs off of senior outfielder Jeff Cammans’ double to make it 4-1. Two more RBI singles by Quinn and junior infielder Pat Fortunato increased the lead to 6-1 .
Senior pitcher Greg Ferguson relieved Cook and got out of a jam with two men on by striking out two hitters and getting junior outfielder Chris Famlietti to ground out.
Senior pitcher Sam Berg took the mound in the fourth and started with a one-two-three inning. However, Berg ran into trouble in the fifth when a third consecutive walk brought home Landi for the Rams seventh run.
Freshman pitcher Nick Berger replaced Berg and only allowed one hit until sophomore pitcher Sean Lyons relieved him in the eighth.
The Rams’ defense was just as responsive as their at-bats. URI fielders laid out in the outfield with bases loaded for a diving catch and turned a caught line drive into a double play preventing additional Husky runs from crossing the plate.
“I’m disappointed with the loss. I know we all are, but we got really, really solid relief effort today,” Glavine said. “We gave up those six runs in the first two innings and we gave up one run after that and it was an unearned run so I think the bullpen did an outstanding job today of keeping it where we needed it to be.”
The Husky offense got going in the seventh with sophomore outfielder Aaron Barbosa and Puttress getting back-to-back singles and Miller getting a single later in the inning, but a strikeout to Leroux and a ground out to Vosler ended the run.
The Huskies will head to Virginia for a three-game weekend series against James Madison University. The series opens Friday at 6:30 p.m.
