By Elizabeth Thomas, News Correspondent
Despite wearing “lucky” black home jerseys, Northeastern (14-18, 4-10 Colonial Athletic Association) suffered a 13-5 loss against non-conference Bryant University (21-15) Tuesday afternoon at Friedman Diamond.
The Huskies benefited from freshman third baseman Rob Fonseca’s two hits and two RBIs along with senior co-captain first baseman Tucker Roeder who also had two hits with an RBI.
“We gave up a lot of free bases yesterday with walks and hit batsman and we didn’t [have a] couple of plays we should have had defensively,” Roeder said. “It’s always frustrating when you can’t get that first guy out of the game. We’ll just have to do a better job of trying to get outs.”
Freshman pitcher Nick Berger’s (2-2) third start this season lasted two innings, in which he allowed six runs on five hits to take the loss.
Bryant Bulldog senior pitcher Brian O’Neil (1-2) pitched three innings allowing just three hits and two walks for his first win of the season.
Bryant scored the first run of the game on a fielder’s choice by senior catcher Mike Delponte scoring senior center fielder Connor Carignan. The Bulldogs added two more runs before ending the inning, 3-0.
The Huskies were unable to hold off the Bulldogs as they scored five runs in the top of the third to increase their lead to 8-0, before taking a 12-run lead into the sixth inning.
Northeastern finally got a run in the bottom of the sixth, when senior co-captain left fielder Matt Miller led off with his third walk of the game. Junior catcher Jon Leroux reached base on a throwing error by junior shortstop Dan Muscatello to bring up freshman second baseman Jason Vosler. Vosler’s RBI single scored Miller for the Huskies’ first run of the game.
“I don’t think we gave up at all,” Roeder said. “We put up runs on the board and sometimes you struggle and have to do a better job of getting timely hits and getting guys on base and advancing runners. We just beat ourselves and sometimes it seems like sometimes we have it and sometimes we don’t.”
Leroux and Vosler both advanced into scoring position for freshman third baseman Rob Fonseca, who had missed the last six games due to an ankle injury. Fonseca doubled to left, scoring both runners cutting the Bulldogs lead to 12-3. Sophomore shortstop Oliver Hart reached on a throwing error, advancing Fonseca and bringing up Roeder who hit a sacrifice fly scoring Fonseca. Sophomore centerfielder and pitcher Conor Lyons along with junior DH John Puttress hit back-to-back singles, scoring Hart making it 12-5 before ending the inning.
Lyons relieved Berger and allowed two earned runs in an inning and a third’s work.
Junior pitcher Michael Murphy came on in the seventh and eighth and allowed just one run. Freshman pitcher Alex McKeon made his first appearance at the mound and pitched a scoreless ninth inning, ending the game as a 13-5 win for the Bulldogs.
“We have a lot of strengths and cohesiveness; there are a lot of positives,” Roeder said. “We just have to turn it on going forward to get into the playoffs, as well as this weekend series being such a big series.”
Northeastern will be back at Friedman Diamond this weekend against Colonial Athletic Association conference leading rivals University of North Carolina-Wilmington, for a three game series. Saturday’s double-header will start at noon with the second game scheduled to start at 3 p.m.
