By Nate Owen, News Staff
‘ BROCKTON – Although technically the home team thanks to a coin flip, the Huskies donned their road grays against Harvard in the opening round of the Beanpot Tuesday afternoon in Brockton.
Despite being away from Friedman Diamond, Northeastern certainly made itself right at home in Campanelli Stadium, slugging four home runs en route to a 16-5 rout of the Crimson and giving head coach Neil McPhee his 599th career win.
‘This is our offense; it’s a long ball offense,’ McPhee said. ‘This is the first time this year that we’ve really had an offense that matches up with our hitters so you just hope that we can keep it going.’
The 16 runs were the most NU has scored since May 9, 2007, when the Huskies pounded out 17 in a win over UMass.
Harvard jumped on sophomore JT Ross in the first, scoring three runs and threatening for more with runners on the corners and one out. But first baseman Dan Zailskas grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to help Ross escape the jam.
The southpaw cruised after that, hurling eight innings while allowing four earned runs.
‘JT’s performance was absolutely outstanding,’ McPhee said.’ ‘They’re a good hitting team, but it didn’t phase him. He was very aggressive and threw a lot of strikes. He came right back and pretty much shut them down, especially when he needed to.’
The Huskies wasted no time tying the game up in the bottom half of the first.
Redshirt freshman right fielder Matt Miller beat out a soft single to second to lead off the inning and senior third baseman Mike Tamsin laced a one-out single through the hole on the right side. Senior second baseman James Donaldson crushed Anthony Nutter’s offering, turning around center fielder Dillon O’Neill as he made a frantic dash toward the fence.
Miller scooted home, followed closely by Tamsin, who appeared dead at the plate, but a poor throw enabled him to slide in with NU’s second run. Senior catcher Frank Pesanello tied the game with a single to left, scoring Donaldson, who had taken third on the throw.
Northeastern broke the tie with four runs in the third. Tamsin led off with a walk and Donaldson doubled, setting the stage for Pesanello. The co-captain boomed a towering shot around the left field foul pole that bounced on the road behind the stadium. Miller capped the scoring with an RBI single up the middle.
Tamsin (3-for-5) hit a home run to left on the first pitch in the bottom of the fourth to give NU an 8-3 lead.
After Harvard scored in the fifth, the’ Huskies added six in the bottom of the inning to make it 14-4. Pesanello doubled to left center to score Tamsin and sophomore left fielder Jeff Dunlap sliced a two run single.
Donaldson led off the seventh with his team-leading fifth home run of the season after hitting four during his first three seasons.
‘I’ve just had a confident approach,’ Donaldson said. ‘The last few weeks the coaches have been working with us trying to get the lineup to heat up a little.’
After playing mostly third base during his Husky career, Donaldson began this year as NU’s starting second baseman and has played solid defense thus far.
‘I played at [second] up until I was 14 or 15,’ he said. ‘It’s one of those positions that once you’ve played there before, you kind of have a feel for it. It’s definitely been a lot of help with Tamsin and [freshman shortstop Sam] Berg giving me good feeds on double plays.’
Junior first baseman Brendan Stokes blasted a home run over the 403 marker in center field leading off the eighth for NU’s 16th and final run.
In the ninth, Ross gave way to freshman Andrew Leenhouts, who promptly struck out the side to end the game. In 13 and 2/3 innings on the season, the lefthander has posted an eye-popping 20 strikeouts and a 1.32 ERA.
‘He’s just showing what the future is,’ McPhee said of Leenhouts. ‘A lot of people are already talking about him. [BC coach Mikio Aoki] said he was going to really be something special and we think so, too.’
Pesanello finished the game with five RBI, while Donaldson knocked in three and scored four times. Tamsin had two RBI and scored four runs as well. Anthony Nutter (0-3, 16.46) took the loss for Harvard, allowing nine earned runs in four innings.’
Up next for NU (15-10, 5-4 Colonial Athletic Association) is a three game set at Dallas Baptist (20-8) this weekend.
Junior Ryan Quigley (2-2, 3.65) and senior co-captain Jeff Thomson (3-3, 5.01) will start the first and second games respectively, of a doubleheader Friday. Senior Trevor Smith (1-1, 2.70) will make his third start of the season Saturday at 1 p.m.
‘ On Monday, the Huskies will face the 2008 Beanpot champion UMass (8-16, 2-7 A-10) at 5:05 p.m. at Fenway Park. The Minuteman knocked off BC 5-2 in the late game in Brockton. Sophomore Les Williams (0-0, 4.20) is slated to pitch for NU.
‘It’s one of the two huge perks of the program, playing at Fenway and playing the Sox in spring training,’ McPhee said. ‘It’s an absolute lifetime moment that they most of them will never revisit in their life. There’s a few, like Carlos [Pena] who did. He played in the Beanpot and he’s there [at Fenway] today.’
