By Max Lederman

It is a field of dreams. It is a field that has seen a childish game mature into a nation’s pastime. It is Fenway Park, and last week it was the sight of Boston’s annual baseball Beanpot.

“It was my first time ever being at Fenway,” said freshman Chris Emanuele. “It was an amazing experience.”

Not quite the experience Emanuele and the Huskies were looking for, as they dropped the first round Beanpot matchup against Boston College, 13-7. The Huskies did beat Harvard in the consolation game, 6-1.

Although the tournament has no weight on the America East standings, the Northeastern baseball team headed onto the field last Wednesday looking to gain momentum heading into a long weekend of doubleheaders.

After the Eagles of BC batted around and dropped five runs on the Huskies in the bottom of the first inning, it looked as if the Dogs might actually lose momentum.

That was, at least, until the top of the second inning when NU dropped two runs of their own with a towering, two-run long-ball by Jeff Heriot that went over the Green Monster.

The Eagles put the game away in the fifth after scoring six runs, on three errors, to put the game out of reach.

“He’s a five tool player, with enormous strength and speed,” said Husky skipper Neil McPhee of his sophomore center fielder. “Often times in tournaments like this you’ll see a lot of runs scored, because you want to save your rotation guys for the weekend. The pitchers for both teams were not the regular rotation guys.”

It was quite apparent that both teams were saving their rotation pitchers for their conference games, because the two teams combined to use a total of six pitchers, and combined for a staggering 27 hits.

Although the Huskies edged the Eagles in the hit column, 14-13, they lost the first round of the Beanpot Tournament. Although the opportunity for repeat Beanpot glory had passed, the Huskies clawed back in their Fenway Finale, downing the University of Massachusetts, 6-1.

The Dogs set the tone in the first inning with another two-run homer by Jeff Heriot: the sophomore’s second blast of the tournament landed three rows up in the right field stands this time.

“As a physical tool player, Jeff Heriot is probably one of the best prospects in all of New England,” McPhee said.

“We all knew he had power, because he hits homers all the time in batting practice,” Emanuele said.

Heriot’s homer didn’t provide the only runs for the Dogs in the first; they added another run in the inning on a Jeff Maher double that plated Ithaca College transfer Tim Bush.

Bush went 4-for-4 in the game with one RBI and two runs scored. Although they didn’t win the championship, the Huskies still played solid baseball in both games, and had a few questionable calls gone their way, things might have turned out differently.

“We had some key calls go against us,” McPhee said. “There were three calls in the game, that actually cost us runs.”