By Max Lederman
The Northeastern baseball team hasn’t exactly lived up to their pre-season expectations, and after winning just one out of the five games it played last week, they find themselves a dismal 2-6 in the conference, and 7-15 overall.
But, the soggy weather hasn’t exactly cooperated either. The rain on Tuesday forced the postponement of NU’s opening round Beanpot date with Boston College. The teams will now play at 5 p.m. on Wednesday at Fenway Park.
The Huskies, a team that was picked to finish third in the America East, dropped all but one game to Maine (22-10, 6-2 AE) last weekend and were outscored 31-12 by the Black Bears.
On the eve of Easter, the only thing that kept the Dogs from bringing home a goose egg from Orono, Maine was a one-out, two-RBI double by America East co-rookie of the week Chris Emanuele in the eighth inning in the first game of the series.
Emanuele’s second and third RBI of game one of the four game series game came in extra innings and gave NU a 6-4 lead and their only win of the week.
“I am doing well, but it’s frustrating not winning, especially because everyone is trying their hardest,” said Emanuele, who currently leads the team in average (.338), hits (26), and RBI (11).
In the other weekend games, NU dropped decisions of 8-2, 4-3 and 15-1.
“Chris is starting to be a real star in this program,” said Husky skipper Neil McPhee.
So, why are the Huskies getting stomped so badly? For starters, a pitching staff that is made up of all control pitchers has surrendered an uncharacteristic 98 walks so far this season.
“Walks are really killing us,” McPhee noted.
Out of the seven pitchers who have started a game for the Huskies this season, only four of them have a win and Justin Hedrick is the only starter to have won more than one game. Not only that, Hedrick is the only starter to have an ERA under 5.79.
“Our four starters are very talented players and we feel that this is just a bump in the road and that hopefully we can overcome it this weekend,” McPhee said.
Pitching isn’t the only thing that is hurting this squad. Pitchers need run support and solid fielding to back them up, and the Huskies haven’t provided such back up.
“Everyone feels we have all of the parts to be successful,” McPhee said. “We just haven’t put it all together, which is mostly in part to us not performing at the right time.”
For much of the season, the pitching has been excellent but the batting or fielding hasn’t been up to par.
“We haven’t put everything together at once,” Husky co-captain Brad Czarnowski said. “But we know it’s going to happen sooner or later.”
“At this point we are looking to win four games a weekend, and if we can’t get four then we have to get three,” McPhee said. “Splits at this point are not going to help us.”
Starting slow is something that these Dogs are somewhat used to. Last year, the Huskies started conference play 2-8 before getting on a roll and finishing out the season with an 11-11 America East record and making it to the final day of the AE tournament.
“The years I’ve been here, we have always started off slow in the conference,” Czarnowski said. “It’s always going to be tough trying to get back to the top.”
“It’s very frustrating to year after year get off to a slow start,” McPhee said. “And when you get yourself in a streak like this, things don’t go your way.”
McPhee is confident that the team has the talent it takes to win.
“Right now we’re 2-6 in the conference, and that is who we are. Do we think we’re better than that? Absolutely,” he said.
“Lack of talent isn’t the reason we aren’t winning ballgames, it’s not performing at the most opportune times in games,” McPhee said. “We know that with the talent we have we can go on a run, and that’s our hope.”
With the Beanpot tourney this week and a four game series against the 3-21 Hartford Bearcats at home this weekend; this would be a perfect time for the Huskies to turn things around.
