By Jake Fischer, News Correspondent
The Northeastern Huskies baseball team has put together an impressive non-conference resume at the beginning of this 2013 season, but the club has not been able to continue that success at the start of Colonial Athletic Association conference play.
The Huskies kicked off CAA play with a 1-2 trip to Norfolk, Va., where they visited the Old Dominion University Monarchs during the first weekend in March. That trend did not change when the team ventured down south again this past weekend, this time to Fairfax, Va., to visit George Mason University. After coming away victorious in the first game, the Huskies dropped the remaining two games of the weekend series.
“It was a very disappointing weekend,” head coach Neil McPhee said. “We’ve dug ourselves a hole here at the start of conference play and that’s certainly not how we expected to begin this part of the season.”
Following the unsuccessful weekend, Northeastern is now just 2-4 in conference play this year and has found itself stuck in the seventh spot in the CAA standings. However, there were some positives to take away from the losing weekend, according to McPhee.
“We’re competing well in games and at the end of games,” said McPhee, who’s in the midst of his 28th season at the helm of the ball club. “We’re giving ourselves a chance to win and hopefully that will be a plus as the season goes on.”
Northeastern certainly competed with the Patriots down in Fairfax. The Huskies won the opening game 12-5 and then narrowly lost the games on Saturday and Sunday by the same score of 2-3. The two reasons the club was able to stay alive in each game? Pitching and hitting.
“Pitching was very good over the weekend for us,” McPhee said. “Nick Cubarney has picked up very well for a freshman and he looks like he’s going to develop into a real positive, real productive rotation guy as the season goes on and as his career goes on.”
Cubarney only gave up one earned run in six innings for the Huskies in the team’s 12-5 victory on Friday.
“Nick Berger is just a great competitor, really throws strikes exceptionally well and gets deep into games so that our bullpen is not used up and Kevin Ferguson is really having his best year to this point, too,” McPhee said. “He’s a veteran and a great Sunday guy. If we lose a game on Friday or Saturday, he’ll give us a chance to not lose the weekend.”
Berger pitched all eight innings for Northeastern on Saturday, striking out six while only yielding three runs. Ferguson tossed 6.2 innings against Mason in the Sunday finale as he struck out seven batters while only suffering two earned runs of his own. Additionally, Isaac Lippert was named co-CAA Pitcher of the Week since the team last took the field.
But the Huskies’ bullpen struggled over the weekend, giving up five earned runs in 5.1 innings of work over the weekend. The storied coach said injuries and lack of bullpen depth might be a reasonable explanation for the lack of production.
“The depth of the staff, especially with the losses — at least temporarily — of [Chris] Carmain and [Mike] Fitzgerald, really hurts the bullpen,” McPhee explained. “With that being that case, we’re going to need our starters to pitch deep into ball games.
“As we go along into the season, we’re going to need to do a better job of bunching our hits. Our strength is hitting, but we have to improve our production. We gave ourselves a chance to win on both Saturday and Sunday, but we just didn’t have it.”
With five players batting .279 or higher, hitting is certainly a strong suit. Connor Lyons has done an excellent job getting on base at the back end of the team’s lineup and is leading the team with a .348 average on the year. As expected, back-to-back CAA Rookies of the Year junior Aaron Barbosa and sophomore Jason Vosler have been steady features at the top of the lineup for the Huskies. But, it’s a new addition to the high-powered Northeastern lineup that has the team’s skipper impressed.
“[Brad Burcroff] has really developed as a player, especially offensively,” McPhee said. “He’s produced well from the beginning.”
Over the weekend, Burcroff went 3-for-12 at the plate, but he did score four runs while driving in two RBIs. On the season, Burcroff, a transfer from Riverside Community College, is batting .290 while leading the team with seven doubles. The junior, who’s been playing everyday in left field, is tied for second on the team in runs scored as well, having crossed the plate 10 times.
The Huskies have shown the potential to put together an impressive season with a 10-1 win and a 5-0 stretch. Entering the campaign, coaches and players alike spoke with aspirations of winning the CAA title. They will have to use their dynamic lineup and deep staff, when healthy, to overcome an overall improved CAA .
