By Nate Owen, News Staff

‘ In a weekend featuring some unusual small ball plays by the Huskies, it was the big bat of Frank Pesanello that powered the baseball team to a winning weekend in their first conference series of the year at Friedman Diamond.
The senior catcher roped a walk-off single in the 11th inning of game one of a doubleheader Saturday and then blasted a home run in each of the ensuing games as Northeastern took two of three from William & Mary.
The Tribe took a 5-4 lead in the top of the 11th on catcher Chris Jensen’s sacrifice fly which scored designated hitter Bret Conner. Senior second baseman James Donaldson ensured the deficit remained at one with a nifty play, going to his left and backhanding a ball off the bat of Tribe second baseman Derrick Osteen, and firing to first where senior Mike Tamsin made a nice scoop to get the final out of the inning and leave center fielder Tyler Truxell stranded at second.
Redshirt freshman right fielder Matt Miller led off the bottom of the inning with a walk and was bunted to second by junior center fielder David Gustafson (4-for-5). Tamsin then walked and Donaldson tied the game, lining a single into the right center gap to score Miller. Donaldson took second on the throw, setting up an empty base for junior left fielder Frank Compagnone, who was intentionally walked, loading the bases for Pesanello (2-for-5).
The co-captain wasted no time making the Tribe pay for electing to face him, lining the first pitch from Logan Billbrough (2-2, 4.11) into the left center field gap to score Tamsin for the win.
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I’ve been struggling lately so I was expecting something early in the count, so I took advantage of that,’ said Pesanello, who was hitless in his last 16 at bats entering the game. ‘I was looking inside because early in the game they pitched me outside and I hit a double, and then they had pitched me in and gotten me out a few times, so I was guessing in on the first pitch to see what happened.’
The Huskies took an early lead in the bottom of the first. Gustafson doubled to deep center field and scored on a Donaldson (3-for-4) single. In the fourth, the Huskies extended their lead when Donaldson smashed a triple to deep center, scoring Tamsin, who had walked. After Compagnone struck out, Pesanello ripped a double just to the left of where Donaldson’s hit had fallen, extending the Huskies’ lead to 3-0. Both Donaldson and Pesanello’s hits would have been home runs in other parks, but the large dimensions of Friedman Diamond kept the ball in play.
‘ NU extended its lead to 4-0 in the fifth when Compagnone reached on a fielder’s choice, scoring Gustafson. The run closed the book on Tribe starter Cole Shain (4 1/3 innings, seven hits, four runs). Garrison Sarrett pitched four shutout innings to keep William & Mary within striking distance.
After breezing through the first five innings, junior Ryan Quigley (5 1/3 innings, six hits, three runs) was touched for three runs in the sixth. But senior Trevor Smith once again delivered a clutch performance out of the bullpen, pitching 4 1/3 innings with four strikeouts.
‘Under other circumstances we might not have taken him out,’ head coach Neil McPhee said of Quigley. ‘But the way our bullpen has performed this year, it makes it much less difficult of a call to take someone out of the game as a starter.’
Pesanello’s hit gave the Huskies momentum heading into the second game, as they came out swinging against Kevin Landry (0-4, 5.66).
Donaldson (2-for-6) singled home Gustafson with the first NU run, while a bases loaded walk to Compagnone forced home Tamsin for the second run. Sophomore left fielder Jeff Dunlap slapped a two run single to give the Huskies a 4-0 lead and cap the scoring for the inning.
‘ ‘Our bench has been great,’ Pesanello said of the Husky dugout, which was loud throughout the game. ‘We got in that pitcher’s head a lot so he was starting to chirp back at our dugout. He missed his pitches and that knocked him out of the game.’
‘ Pesanello gave NU a 6-1 advantage when he blasted his second home run of the season leading off the inning, launching the ball just to the right of the 375-foot marker in right center. It was his first home run since March 2.
‘ ‘He clearly broke out of his slump today,’ McPhee said of Pesanello. ‘He hit the ball hard. He’s back to what we want him to do. We want him hitting the ball the way somebody with his size and strength is supposed to hit the ball.’
Northeastern scored its final run off Landry (6 innings, six hits, seven runs) with an unusual play for a team not noted for small ball tactics. With Dunlap on third following a triple, sophomore third baseman Ryan Maguire dropped down a perfect suicide squeeze to scratch across a run.
‘We’re trying to add things in,’ McPhee said. ‘It’s not my normal strategy of play, we’re not a running team, so if you’re not a running team it’s hard to implement those strategies.” ‘
McPhee also commented on the excitement of the play.
‘That’s probably the most exciting offensive play in the game,’ McPhee said. ‘Those are the kind of things that absolutely get the adrenaline moving and pumping. We maybe had one [squeeze] here last year and one a year before. Because we’re not a running team, those kinds of things go by the wayside most of the time.’
NU added several late runs and cruised to the 9-3 win. Senior co-captain Jeff Thomson (3-3, 5.01) pitched 6 1/3 innings for the win, allowing 11 hits and two earned runs.
‘ Thomson was helped by senior Dan Zehr, who came in with the bases loaded in the seventh and promptly notched two outs to leave them that way.
Zehr tossed a hitless 2 2/3 innings with four strikeouts to close the game.
Sunday’s finale once again went to extra innings, but this time the Tribe came out on top.
‘ The Huskies jumped to an early 2-0 lead thanks to a RBI single by Tamsin, who stole second and would score on an errant throw by Jensen.
William & Mary took the lead with three runs in the fourth off sophomore Les Williams (7 innings, five hits, three runs).
With Donaldson at the plate, Northeastern once again put the squeeze on. But as Miller was bolting home from third, Donaldson failed to get the bunt down on an erratic pitch and the ball squirted away from Jensen, allowing Miller to score and tie the game.
Northeastern took a brief lead in the eighth inning when Pesanello rocketed the first pitch from Matt Davenport into the net behind the Wiliam & Mary bullpen.
But Davenport (4-1, 6.21) settled down after that, pitching five shutout innings. The Tribe tied the game in the ninth when Osteen knocked an RBI single off senior Russ Lloyd.
A long sacrifice fly in the top of the 12th by DH Rob Nickle gave William & Mary the eventual winning run, as the Huskies couldn’t rally in the bottom of the inning. After getting the win in game one Saturday, Lloyd (1-1, 1.32) was charged with the loss.
‘ ‘It’s another missed opportunity McPhee said. ‘[A win] could have helped us in the conference and we let it slip by. We have no one to blame but ourselves for this one.’
‘ Northeastern will host Marist (14-12, 5-3 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) today at 3 p.m. and travel to Campanelli Stadium in Brockton to face Harvard (7-18, 5-2 Ivy) in the opening round of the Beanpot tomorrow at 3 p.m.