By Jenna Majeski, news correspondent
After two cancelled home games over the preceding weekend, the Northeastern baseball team finally got to perform on their home turf March 19, defeating the University of Hartford 3-1. They continued that winning momentum into their game the following day, beating Boston College 7-4 after an intense 18 innings.
The unpredictable New England weather caused the weekend’s cancellations, but did not discourage the team.
“It didn’t really affect the morale of the team very much,” third-year Jake Farrell said. “The mindset going into the game on Monday was the same as the mindset we would’ve had on Saturday and Sunday.”
Monday’s game started slowly, with three scoreless innings until Farrell hit his third home run of the season in the fourth inning.
The team earned two more runs in the fifth inning to clinch the win against Hartford. Standout second-year Sean Mellen pitched six innings and struck out five players.
“Sean Mellen started for us,” head coach Mike Glavine said. “He pitched the ball really well and we were happy with what he did.”
The Huskies continued their success Tuesday afternoon at Boston College, but faced more of a challenge as a tied score kept them out on Brighton Field for more than five hours.
“Crazy game, I give both teams a ton of credit and we just battled the whole time, as did they, and we came out on top at the end,” Glavine said. “I just give our guys a ton of credit for staying into it and staying engaged.”.
Northeastern started ahead with third-year Charlie McConnell batting in a runner in the top of the second inning. The game wavered back and forth until reaching a 3-3 tie in the sixth inning which then turned into a 4-4 tie in the 14th inning with Ian Fair batting in Max Burt.
The Huskies finally managed to gain a win in the 18th inning when McConnell hit a triple and was then batted in by third-year Cam Walsh.
“It was the second longest game I’ve been involved in here as a coach, and there’s just so much of a range of emotions,” Glavine said. “But I’m proud of the way we competed the entire time.”
Essential to the Huskies’ success was the support and engagement of all of the players, Farrell said.
“It really goes along with every single guy on the team buying in, even the guys that are on the bench,” he said. “They give us energy when everybody’s into the game.”
The efforts by Northeastern pitchers Brian Christian, Andrew Misiaszek, Kyle Murphy and David Stiehl are also notable because of the effort required to pitch nine extra innings.
“I was really impressed with our pitchers going above and beyond pitching more than they probably wanted to,” Glavine said.
