By Max Lederman
With a cold steady drizzle that made each ping of their aluminum bats feel more like a hammer smashing their cold fingers, the Northeastern baseball team lost a close contest to Holy Cross in their home opener last Wednesday, 6-4.
The game was stopped once for rain and ended after eight innings due to darkness.
“It was one of those games where we didn’t do anything wrong, they just hit our pitching better than we hit theirs,” said Husky skipper Neil McPhee.
The Huskies held 3-0 lead in the fourth inning when sheets of rain began to blanket the field, and play was halted for 29 minutes.
The 29 minutes turned out to be just what Holy Cross needed, as their bats came alive when play resumed, resulting in four unanswered runs to give them a 4-3 advantage in the fifth inning.
However, the Huskies weren’t done yet. Brad Czarnowski blasted an inside the park home run in the bottom of the inning that notched the game at four.
“I knew I hit it pretty well and that there is a lot of space out there,” said Czarnowski. “When it hit off of the centerfielder’s glove, I knew I had a chance.”
Just when the Huskies thought that they had a chance to pull off the victory, Holy Cross’s Matt McEvoy led off the sixth with a solo shot that ended the day for NU starter Matt Piryk. The Huskies would not threaten the Crusaders again.
“It was a game that we thought we should have won,” Czarnowski said. “It just shows us that we have to respect every team.”
Although Brian Nutting hit his first home run as a Husky, the team as a whole could only muster six hits off Holy Cross’s John Dibble, who pitched all eight innings in the rain-shortened game.
“In baseball one pitcher can shut a team down,” McPhee said. “It’s one of those games you just tip your hat to the pitcher.”
After starting the season scorching hot, the tandem of Chris Emanuele and Omar Pena went hitless in four at-bats.
“Nobody can stay red hot for every single game,” McPhee said. “But i’ts tough to get your offense going when your number one and three batters don’t hit.”
The Huskies were supposed to start their conference schedule last Saturday, with a double-header against Vermont, but the inclement weather kept that from occurring. With a major winter storm heading towards the Northeast, it is unclear when the Huskies will play again.
They are scheduled to play the University of Connecticut and Boston College in the coming week, and finally begin conference play on Saturday with a double-header against Albany.
“It’s tough with this weather,” Czarnowski said. “To come back from playing in Florida and then to have all of these games delayed.”
“You can’t do anything about the weather,” McPhee said. “Every team in this part of the country is in the same situation, and you really can’t predict how your team is going to react.”
Although the weather has been cold, the Dogs are looking to heat up this week and start conference play on the right foot.
“We want to get off to a fast start in the conference, and then just take it one week at a time,” McPhee said. “It’s just a matter of getting on the field and playing on a regular basis. Then, generally, the cream rises to the top, and hopefully that will be us.”
Wednesday, at BC, the Huskies will try to ground the Eagles. If the game is snowed out, NU will next play a pair of games at Albany on Saturday.
