By Nate Owen

Despite a solid pitching performance from senior co-captain Jeff Thomson and three members of the bullpen, the Huskies’ inability to string together any offense and field the ball cleanly led to a 6-2 loss in their season opener to Division II Eckerd last night at the Buck O’Neill Baseball Complex in Sarasota, Fla.
‘It was somewhat of a typical first game,’ manager Neil McPhee said. ‘The errors really cost us the ballgame; they were mostly physical errors. The pitching was good to very good.’
The Tritons (5-5) did most of their damage off Thomson (five innings, six runs) in the second inning, scoring four times. Second baseman Matt Abraham delivered the biggest blow with a two-out, two run single through the left side of the infield.
Northeastern responded in the bottom half of the inning when sophomore catcher Devin Barry lined a two-out single to score junior first baseman Brendan Stokes.
Eckerd tacked on two more runs in the top of the fifth and the Huskies scored the final run of the game when sophomore designated hitter Ryan Maguire came home on freshman shortstop Sam Berg’s RBI single.
The Husky lineup, already without junior outfielders Tony DiCesare and Frank Compagnone, was further stricken with the loss of senior catcher and co-captain Frank Pesanello and his school-record 20 home runs from last season.
McPhee said Pesanello pulled his groin and ‘it was one of the injuries that you want to wait until it’s fully healed.’
The slugger will likely play Saturday against the Boston Red Sox and in at least one game of the Huskies’ doubleheader with Northwestern’ Sunday.
In his absence, Barry made his collegiate debut and was 2-for-2 with a walk. Berg finished his first collegiate game 1-for-3, while redshirt freshman rightfielder Matt Miller also recorded his first collegiate hit, going 1-for-4 from his leadoff spot.
Despite the loss, McPhee said the Huskies got a good look at some of their pitchers and were able to get them some work.
Seniors Dan Zehr and Russ Lloyd and sophomore Les Williams combined for four shutout innings out of the bullpen, allowing only two hit while striking out five.
‘Every pitcher threw a lot of strikes, that’s very encouraging,’ McPhee said. ‘[We need] to improve the defense and get some kind of sustained offense. We can’t rely on our pitchers to win 2-1 games.’
The Triton’s Johnny Lancaster (1-2, 4.42) threw seven innings, allowing six hits and striking out eight for his first win of the season.
Eckerd designated hitter Joe Dabah was 3-for-4 with a run scored on the evening.
The Huskies will hold their annual scrimmage with the Boston Red Sox Saturday at 1 p.m. in Fort Myers, Fla.
Check out www.huntington-news.com for blog updates from the game.
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