By Bailey Knecht, News Correspondent
The Northeastern baseball team concluded the regular season by winning four of its last seven games, including a 17-1 blowout in the final matchup of last week’s James Madison University (JMU) series.
After the JMU series, freshman pitcher Dustin Hunt was named the Colonial Athletic Association Rookie of the Week for the fourth time this season. He improved to 6-0 after the big win against James Madison. He is also the second consecutive Northeastern player to be honored. Freshmanthird baseman Cam Hanley won the award the week before.
The team faced UNCW in its final series, winning one of three games. They capped the regular-season finale with a 5-3 victory against the Seahawks. Seniorrighthander Chris Carmain improved his pitching record to 7-2 after coming out of the bullpen for the first time this year. The senior class members- Sean Lyons, Connor Lyons, Justin Kessler, Brad Burcroff and Carmain- were honored in the game, along with Coach Neil McPhee, who is retiring after this season.
McPhee has coached the team for 29 seasons and has more wins than any coach in Northeastern’s sports history. Under his leadership, 20 Northeastern players have signed with Major League teams.
With the final win of the season, the Huskies clinched a spot in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament for the second season in a row. Last year, the team made it to the CAA semifinals.
The team ended the regular season going 9-12 in conference play and 25-27 overall.
In the annual CAA banquet on Tuesday, seven Huskies were awarded with postseason baseball awards. Junior Jason Vosler was named to the All-CAA First Team, while senior outfielder Connor Lyons was named to the All-CAA Second Team.
Lyons finished the regular season with the CAA’s fourth best batting average at .338 and third in hits with 73.
Carmain, redshirt-sophomore Michael Foster, and Dustin Hunt were all named to the All-CAA Third Team.
Hanley and Hunt were also honored as members of the All-CAA Rookie Team. Senior Justin Kessler was named to the Academic Team. Kessler completed his undergraduate studies with a 3.449 GPA and a degree in psychology.
The team began playoff action on Wednesday with a 4-3 loss against the University of Delaware. Playing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington field, the Huskies hit well early on, including a triple by redshirt-sophomore catcher Josh Treff, his first of the season. They took an early 3-0 lead in the second inning, but the Blue Hens rallied. Delaware scored its last two runs in the eighth inning, and Northeastern was unable to answer back as the Blue Hens claimed the first-round win.
With Wednesday’s tournament loss against Delaware, the team will return to action in an elimination game in hopes of making another deep playoff run.
Photo courtesy goNU.com
