By Max Lederman
It’s a sure sign of spring when the boys of summer come out to play. So pull on your stir-ups, adjust your helmet, and step up to the plate, it’s baseball season!
Instead of looking like a frozen ghost of baseball past, the bronze statue of Cy Young that has quietly spent the frigid winter hiding under a thick blanket of white snow has emerged from the ice. Along with the sun that glistens off of the old fashion style baseball cap perched on the head of one of the greatest pitchers of all time, shines a bright light of hope. No, this isn’t hope for October glory, come on folks – this is Boston. This is hope for May glory; hope for an America East baseball championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, something that the Northeastern Baseball Team was two wins away from last year.
“We all felt like we should have won last year,” said junior co-captain Brad Czarnowski.
After pounding Vermont and Stony Brook by a combined nine runs in the first two rounds of the America East championship last season, the Huskies lost twice to Maine to officially end their 2002 campaign.
“It was a disappointment that we couldn’t win one out of the two games on the final day, but you can’t win a championship unless you get to the final game, so that was a great accomplishment for that team,” said Coach Neil McPhee. “I think that this years team has a few more parts than last years team, and I think we’ve got a very good chance of reaching our goal and winning the conference championship.”
The Huskies return seven starters from last years team, with senior shortstop Omar Pena, brother of former Husky and current Detroit Tiger, Carlos Pena, the biggest returning threat. In a team high 194 at-bats, Pena batted .289 with two home runs and 27 RBI in 2002. In ten games this season, Pena is batting .367 with 11 hits and three RBI.
“Omar is off to a terrific start and if he continues he could be the guy that really propels us,” McPhee said.
One surprise for the Huskies in this young season is freshman Chris Emanuel, who is hitting .400 (third in the conference) with 14 hits and six RBI.
“We already know that the lineup this year is significantly stronger than last year,” McPhee said. “This year we can actually put together two different lineups. We can put a lineup against a left-handed pitcher as well as a right-handed pitcher.”
With no proven deep ball threat in the lineup, coach McPhee is looking for his batters to make contact with the ball and have quality at-bats.
“This year’s team has the potential to be a very strong contact-hitting team, and I would rather have that at our level than a power hitting team,” McPhee said.
Along with a promising lineup, the Huskies pitching staff also looks poised for greatness, with six pitchers returning from last year’s squad with a combined total of 57 appearances.
“The strength of the team this year would definitely be in the pitching staff,” McPhee said.
Leading the pack this year will be 6-4 sophomore Devin Monds. In 10 starts last season, the right-handed Monds went 5-2 with a 1.80 ERA while fanning a team high 53 batters. Junior Justin Hedrick as well as junior right-hander Jordan Thomson and senior co-captain Brendan Ryan will accompany Monds in the rotation. Hedrick, who is currently 2-0, has been lights out so far this season striking out a team high 19. In 15.1 innings pitched, Hedrick has given up just three earned runs, while his ERA of 1.76 is good for 2nd in the conference.
“All of our rotation pitchers right now have pitched very well, and very consistent,” added McPhee.
Another bright spot for the Huskies is sophomore Tim Bush, who looks to be the teams first legitimate closer in a few years.
Husky skipper Neil McPhee enters the 2003 season looking to add to his career total of 427 wins. Last season McPhee became the first NU coach of any sport to reach the 400-victory plateau. Northeastern was picked to finish third in the annual preseason America East coaches poll. Maine, the reigning America East Champions, was picked to finish first and Vermont was picked to second.
“I can’t even remember where we were picked to finish last year, but I do remember where we finished, and that was the championship game,” McPhee said. “It makes no difference to me if we are picked sixth or first. It all comes out at the end.”
So far in pre-conference play the Huskies are 4-6.
“We have played pretty well so far against some of the top teams in the nation,” Czarnowski said. “We feel like we can play with anybody.”
With a good mix of young talent and veteran leadership the sky is the limit for the Northeastern baseball team. The Huskies will host Holy Cross in their home opener on Wednesday at Friedman Diamond starting at 3 p.m.
