By Bailey Knecht, News Correspondent
Northeastern baseball returned to Friedman Diamond on Wednesday, this time to take on Fairfield University In a much closer game than Tuesday’s victory at University of Rhode Island, the Huskies fell to the Stags, 3-2.
“Collectively as an offense, we just didn’t do a good job, and we didn’t come ready to play today,” Northeastern assistant coach Mike Glavine said.
Both Northeastern and Fairfield came into Wednesday’s game riding three-game winning streaks.
The Huskies took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Michael Foster was sent to home base by a Sean Lyons home run, his first of the year. Fairfield went on to score a run in the third, though, on a throwing error by Northeastern’s junior infielder Keith Kelly.
The Huskies held on to their lead until things suddenly shifted in the eighth inning. Fairfield’s Mac Crispino sent a runner home to tie up the game at 2. Immediately after, Dan Hopkins put Fairfield ahead with an RBI single, making the score 3-2. Neither team would score in the final inning.
“We left a couple pitches up in the zone, and they hit them, so you gotta give them credit. They fought hard all day and they finally broke through there in the eighth,” Glavine said about Fairfield’s late run.
Despite the loss, a number of Northeastern’s younger pitchers showed promising signs. Freshmen Nate Borges and Mike Driscoll both threw the first strikeouts of their careers. Will Jahn threw a solid 1-2-3 fifth inning.
“That’s hard to do, to come in and throw in a game like today. They showed themselves well and threw strikes, and we’re really impressed with how they did today,” Glavine said of the rookies.
Lippert also praised the young pitchers.
“They haven’t gotten in a lot this year, but I know every time they’ve gotten in, they’ve done well,” he said. “They’re all really talented pitchers, and the staff in general has been doing great this year, just throwing strikes and relying on the defense to do their job.”
Northeastern now heads to Delaware for another three-game weekend conference series against the Blue Hens.
