By Jared Shafran
After splitting the first two games of a series against Virginia Commonwealth, the baseball team lost the deciding game Saturday, dropping the series two games to one.
The series, originally scheduled to be played Friday, Saturday and Sunday, had to be rescheduled because there was a threat of rain in Richmond, Va. Therefore, the Huskies played a double header Friday and moved the third game to a 10 a.m. start Saturday.
In the first game, the Huskies hit well but did not get the pitching performance they needed and lost 15-7.
Jeff Thomson (4-2) started the game for the Huskies. Thomson, did not have the same success he had last week this time around. He only got through four innings, allowing eight runs on 11 hits.
“This start doesn’t alter how Jeff has pitched this year,” said Husky head coach Neil McPhee. “It was the first time he has given up significant runs.”
On the offensive end, center fielder Frank Compagnone led the team with three hits on the day, including a double, RBI and two runs scored.
“The offense was great all weekend,” McPhee said.
The second game was only a seven inning one, but the Huskies were able to come out on top. Northeastern took an early lead, and were able to come back after VCU scored eight runs in the fifth inning, winning by a score of 12-11.
Husky catcher Frank Pesanello belted two more homers, bringing his total to 12 on the season. He also finished with six RBI, the most for a Huskies player this year in a game. His second home run turned out to be the game winner as it came in the seventh inning with two outs when the Huskies were down by one.
“The comeback was positive,” McPhee said. “I’ve never experienced something like that in all my years of coaching. All of our guys hit the ball hard at the end of the game.”
Other Huskies who had big days on offense were Tony DiCesare and Josh Porter. DiCesare banged out a season high four hits for the Huskies, including two doubles and two RBI. Porter went 2-3 with a homer, two RBI and two runs scored.
Dan Zehr started the game for the Huskies, going 4 1/3 innings and getting a no-decision after letting up seven runs on 10 hits.
The winning pitcher for the Huskies was Sheldon McDonald. He let up two runs in 2 2/3 innings for Northeastern, but when it mattered in the bottom of the seventh, McDonald closed out the game, giving the Huskies the win.
“McDonald got the first two outs of the inning very quickly but then let up two singles,” McPhee said. “After that, Sheldon came back and reached down inside himself to blow the last batter away with a strikeout.”
In the third game, the Huskies got off to a slow start, getting down by a score of 6-1 after three innings before a 3 1/2 hour rain delay stopped play.
Once the game was restarted, the Huskies offense could not come back and they lost by a final score of 16-2.
“We are playing erratic baseball,” McPhee said. “We are at the midway point of the season. Now we need to play catch up in the conference.”
Kris Dabrowiecki started Saturday’s game but was pulled after three innings because of the rain, and Charly Bashara pitched the final five innings in relief for the Huskies
With the loss, the Huskies fell to 12-16-1 (5-9-1 CAA). Northeastern plays its next game today, traveling to Connecticut to play UConn at 3 p.m. After that, the team will play in the Beanpot consolation game at Fenway Park against Harvard, Tuesday at 1 p.m.
