By Jessica Geller, News Correspondent
A punch-out parade kicked off the first home series of the season this past weekend at Friedman Diamond as the baseball team completed a three-game sweep of the Niagara University Purple Eagles.
Junior starting pitcher Nick Berger threw seven scoreless innings in game one of Saturday’s doubleheader, originally scheduled for Friday but moved because of snow on the field. He struck out all but one of the Eagles’ starting lineup to record a career-high 11 strikeouts.
“It was good to get back to the way I know I can pitch. I struggled at the beginning of this year so finally getting back into a groove was nice,” Berger (1-0), after Sunday’s game, said. “The whole pitching staff had a great effort this weekend. We pitch like that, we aren’t going to lose many games.”
In the bottom of the third, senior Brad Burcroff drew the walk against Niagara’s starting pitcher Jordan Schwartz. Sophomore Michael Foster was hit by a pitch. Junior Jason Vosler drove in the base runners with a two-run single to center.
With Burcroff on the mound for the eighth inning, Niagara scored its lone unearned run. Foster came in for the save. Together, all three pitchers recorded a season-high mark of 13 strikeouts, which matched last year’s season-best total.
Senior Chris Carmain pounded the zone in game two with a career-best eight strikeouts in six innings to earn his second win of the season. Junior Isaac Lippert pitched three innings of relief to record his first save of the season. Lippert added five strikeouts to bring Saturday’s total to 26.
The offense came alive in the afternoon, led by senior Connor Lyons’ three hits and Foster’s four RBIs, both Huskies tying career-high numbers, respectively. In the second inning, Connor Lyons drove in senior Sean Lyons on an infield single. After Burcroff drew the walk, Foster hit a two-run single. Northeastern put the game away in the seventh when Foster tripled, scoring Burcroff and Connor Lyons.
Sunday’s game was all Northeastern. Freshman Dustin Hunt struck out the first two batters he faced looking. He went on to record a career-high nine strikeouts in seven scoreless innings.
The second time through the lineup, the Huskies’ bats played small ball with four singles and a sacrifice bunt. Connor Lyons drove in two runs, to put Northeastern ahead 4-0. Burcroff led off the sixth inning with an inside-the-park home run to centerfield. Northeastern added two more runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh to shut out Niagara, 7-0.
“I’ve never hit an inside the park home run but it was awesome. The energy here today, even though it was so cold, was great,” Burcroff said.
Nick Cubarney sent the Eagles down in order in the final two innings of the series. With the sweep, Northeastern’s pitchers recorded a combined total of 38 strikeouts over the weekend.
Despite the strong pitching performances, the defense had five errors Saturday afternoon, eight total on the homestretch, the most since May 5, 2012 at Hofstra when the team committed six.
“Hopefully we clean up a couple mistakes we made,” Berger said. “[The coaches] were happy with two wins [Saturday] but obviously when you are making five errors, that’s something we have to work on. Most of them were physical errors instead of mental errors so those happen. I know these guys in the infield. It’s not going to happen again. It’s just one day.”
The three-game sweep of Niagara is the first of its kind since a late March meeting with James Madison last season.
“To get back on track, it’s real nice to get a few wins and get our confidence going into the next games,” said Burcroff.
