By: Anthony Gulizia, News Correspondent
It was an up-and-down weekend for the baseball team, which suffered back-to-back losses to Bryant and Connecticut, after taking two from Bryant first.
The first victory of the weekend came Friday afternoon at Friedman Diamond, as junior righthander Les Williams led the way in a 10-0 victory. The Toronto native nearly tossed a no-hitter, contributing eight innings of shutout baseball and surrendering one hit on the day.
“It’s as good a game as he’s pitched here,” head coach Neil McPhee said. “He [Williams] was ahead on 18 out of 21 batters and that was the key. He put the hitters in a defensive mode and it’s so easy to get hitters out when you’re ahead in the count.”
The offense was led by senior right fielder Tony DiCesare, who was 4-5 with three RBI in Friday’s victory.
“To have Tony come back after missing 18 months is phenomenal,” McPhee said. “He’s been looking real good at the bat and excellent on defense.”
Saturday afternoon, the Huskies traveled down to Smithfield, R.I. where they dropped the Bulldogs by a score of 7-4. Again, the Huskies received a strong pitching effort, this time from sophomore Drew Leenhouts. The 6-foot-3 southpaw struck out seven in six innings of work, earning his first win of the season. McPhee said solid pitching is imperative to successful conference play.
“The timing of both pitchers [Williams and Leenhouts] was great,” McPhee said. “Drew threw a similar game, threw a lot of strikes, and was ahead of the hitters a lot. If we’re going to do something in conference play, pitching is key.”
The Huskies also received great work from the bullpen, as senior left hander Charly Bashara threw three innings of shutout work, allowing one hit and picking up his first save on the season.
“Charly’s been solid and consistent all year, and he’s a go-to guy in multiple situations,” McPhee said. “He’s so versatile, and is extremely valuable. He’s a great set-up guy for Dan Zehr.”
Freshman catcher John Leroux and sophomore first baseman Matt Miller contributed three hits apiece, while senior outfielders Frank Compagnone and DiCesare added two RBI each.
McPhee said he is satisfied with the production of the middle of the lineup, with Compagnone and DiCesare hitting three and four, and the steady production of Miller.
“One of the real surprises this year is the back-to-back production of Frank and Tony. They’re both hitting close to .400, and have really exceeded expectations,” McPhee said. “The constant machine is Matt Miller. With so many guys with high averages, there’s so much production where there was once a question mark.”
McPhee also applauded the work of freshmen second baseman Alan Pastyrnak and third baseman Logan Gillis, who McPhee said, “have really exceeded the expectations as freshmen.”
Sunday afternoon, the Huskies returned to Friedman Diamond, but were unable to complete the sweep of Bryant, losing, 16-4. The Huskies cut the lead to one in the bottom half of the second, after a base-clearing double by Miller made it 5-4.
“We did what we needed and responded immediately to opponents’ runs as we did Saturday,” McPhee said. “And when we respond to runs, we need to shut them down and that’s what we’ve been doing. We played poor defensively, but that’s part of the learning curve.”
On Monday, the Huskies traveled to Storrs, Conn. to face their counterpart, the Huskies of the UConn. After a one-hour rain delay, Northeastern was on the losing end of this dogfight, falling 12-1, the only run of the day coming from a DiCesare single.
Heading into conference play, McPhee said he is sporting a positive attitude toward his ballclub.
“We’ve got some work to do defensively, but with the plus performance of freshmen, and the superlative effort of Miller, Compagnone, and DiCesare, we have a very positive feeling about ourselves,” he said.
The Huskies will begin conference play this weekend as they head down to Richmond, Va. to take on VCU in a three-game series.
