Huskies Home Opener, Minutemen Minced

Sadie Parker

In a last minute midweek match up, the Huskies dominate against UMass Amherst Minutemen, winning 11-2.

Jack Sinclair, news staff
March 4, 2021

Late cancellations. Even later additions. This is the plight of the Northeastern baseball team’s 2021 campaign. After their opening series at Wake Forest, the Huskies have had two subsequent opponents cancel on them. First it was Villanova, then the Maine Blackbears pulled out of the replacement series to be held in Boston. Northeastern was stuck on the sidelines until Monday’s announcement of a midweek matchup against the UMass Amherst Minutemen.

“We were disappointed with the weekend and not playing,” said Northeastern head coach Mike Glavine. “I think [the players] are ready just to get back out on the field and face another opponent.”

The non-conference matchup was the first between UMass and Northeastern since the opening round of the 2018 Baseball Beanpot, which the Huskies won 10-8.

“Midweek games are great. It’s all rivalry games. It’s all New England teams, so it’s always fun for us to fight, to challenge those teams,” Glavine said. 

Northeastern would win this meeting against UMass handily, bouncing the Minutemen out of Friedman Diamond with a final score of 11-2. 

Starting on the hill for Northeastern was freshman Wyatt Scotti. The righty got off to a quick start, retiring three of four in the first inning. He immediately received a cushion in the bottom of the same frame, when redshirt sophomore Ben Malgeri scored on an errant throw by sophomore catcher Dylan Judd as he stole third. 

Scotti sent the next seven batters back to the bench, while the offense tacked on more runs. He would finish his collegiate debut with a win, 4.0 innings pitched, five strikeouts and one lone hit — a stellar start by any metric. 

The Huskies offense, despite having an unusually long break between games, didn’t skip a beat from their 14-11 win at Wake Forest. The NU bats chased UMass’ starting pitcher out of the game by the third inning, then scored nine runs in the space of three innings. Northeastern ended the game having had four batters hit for five doubles combined. 

The bats were not the only facet of the Northeastern offense. The Huskies attacked the Minutemen on the basepaths. Any NU runner on base was a threat to steal second, and get into scoring position.

“That’s our offense really. [Friedman Diamond] is a tough park to hit in sometimes, we have to have some speed in the lineup, which we do,” Glavine said. “Even if you’re not stealing bases, we’re hard down the baseline, taking two out of the box. I think good things will happen for our offense.”

Northeastern had several big performances from the batter’s box, including redshirt sophomore Corey Diloreto. The first baseman batted for two doubles, a walk, four runs and an RBI. Malgeri also had a standout performance around the diamond, going three-for-five and driving in two runs.

“He can do a lot of different things in a game,” Glavine said. “He’s a plus defender, he’s a plus runner, he’s got some power in the bat, today his speed really took over for us offensively.”

Catcher and redshirt junior Teddy Beaudet contributed with a team-leading three RBIs, while redshirt senior Scott Holzwasser added one of his own. Holzwasser put forth the best example of the Huskies dominance on the basepaths, with a highlight-worthy jump over the tag at second base. 

The Northeastern pitching staff was sharp as well, holding the UMass offense to only three hits and two runs. Freshman catcher Mike Gervasi was the only Minuteman to really get to any of Northeastern’s arms, hitting the game’s only home run off redshirt junior Henry Ennen in the top of the eighth. UMass would be the only side to commit an error, doing so on four occasions. 

This weekend, Northeastern will head down to Norfolk, Virginia for a three game series against Old Dominion University.

“[We just want] to build upon our opening weekend, and just try to get better. Old Dominion is a really talented club,” Glavine said. “From our perspective, it’s just ‘keep getting better.’ It’s a really, really challenging club to play against… I think it sets us up for the season later on.”