By Max Lederman
A horrendous start to their 2003 campaign had the baseball team near the bottom of the conference with a 2-6 record. Eventually, one figured, things had to change for last year’s America East championship finalists.
Maybe, just maybe, that revolution is upon us.
Last weekend the Dogs took three out of four games from third place Stony Brook (24-16 overall,10-6 conference), whose team batting average of .304 is the best in the conference.
“We’ve been playing extremely well as a team,” said co-captain Brad Czarnowski. “All the parts are coming together at the right time.”
The defining moment of the weekend, and maybe even the year, came in the seventh inning of Sunday’s first game. After taking an 8-4 lead into the bottom of the fifth, Husky starter Justin Hedrick gave up a two run shot to Stony Brook’s Matt Devins that brought the Sea Wolves to within two.
The score remained the same going into the bottom of the seventh, when Hedrick calmly struck out the first two batters he faced and was one out away from his fourth win of the season. Then Devins stepped up to bat (Devins currently leads the league in doubles, is fifth in the league with a .356 batting average and is third in the league with 34 RBI). Three strikes later, including a third one swinging, the game was over and the Huskies were victorious, 8-6.
Freshman Chris Emanuele went 2-for-4 with two RBI while his classmate Arman Sidhu went 2-for-3 with one RBI.
In game two, senior co-captain Brendan Ryan went the distance for Northeastern, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out seven to improve to 2-3 on the season.
“The past two starts I’ve just been hitting my spots,” said Ryan.
Sidhu went 4-for-4 with an RBI, and the Huskies scored four runs to give Ryan the 4-2 victory.
In such a crucial game, the Dogs leader brought NU’s record back to .500.
“If there’s ever a moment when your senior captain needs to step it up, that was it,” said McPhee. “He was awesome.”
The Huskies had complete-game performances from all four of their starters last weekend, with Devin Monds being the only starter who didn’t win.
In game two of Friday’s doubleheader the Huskies broke their bats loose.
After scoring two runs in the first inning, the Dogs blew the game open with an eight-run second. After Stony Brook walked the bases loaded, Tim Bush put Northeastern ahead 6-0 by smacking a grand slam over the left field fence.
After two more SBU walks and a Brian Nutting single, NU had a 7-0 lead. However, NU wasn’t done there, they added three more runs on an RBI single, an error and a hit batter to give them a 10-0 lead heading into the third inning.
Jordan Thompson struck out eight while giving up just six hits and no earned runs on his way to the complete game victory. In game one of Fridays doubleheader Stony Brook’s lethal duo of Mike Russo and Matt Devins went a combined 4-5, scoring three runs while batting in two, on their way to a 5-1 victory over NU. SBU starter Jon Lewis went the distance, fanning 11 and giving up just four hits and one earned run. NU’s Devin Monds picked up the loss, despite throwing all seven innings.
Although they are still just 8-8 in the conference and 15-18 overall, the fact that the Huskies are in fourth place in the AE should brighten even the grayest of days for coach Neil McPhee. A little over two weeks ago the Huskies were 7-16 overall, but that was before they won eight of their last ten games to pull themselves out of the America East cellar and back into the mix of things.
After such a poor start, McPhee told his team that splits were no longer an option.
“We know what we have to do,” said Ryan.
EXTRA BASES: NU freshman Arman Sidhu was named America East Rookie of the Week after going 12-18 (.667) last weekend with a .833 slugging percentage. The freshman is hitting .333 on the season and is tied for second on the team with 16 RBIs… Along with the pitching, the biggest difference from this team and the team that took the field two weeks ago is clutch hitting. The team is coming up with big innings, and is hitting with runners in scoring position. “You can see the difference now,” said Emanuele. “We’re having big break-out innings.” After a rough start the team has playing as one. “Its frustrating starting off slow, but we’re starting to roll,” Ryan said. “Hopefully we’ll roll right into the playoffs.”
