The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

Baseball: Huskies downed in Beanpot

You win some, you lose some.

With Northeastern athletics and Beanpot tournaments, you lose a lot of them.

Any hopes of Northeastern Baseball Beanpot joy next Tuesday at Fenway Park were eliminated by a pesky Harvard team yesterday afternoon in an 8-5 loss at Lynn’s Fraser Field.

Like the men’s and women’s hockey teams before them this past winter, another Huntington Avenue program has been forced to play in one of collegiate sports’ most irrelevant spectacles: the Beanpot Consolation game. The Huskies (15-15) will be playing Boston College who beat UMass 11-3 at Yawkey Way’s fabled grounds.

Northeastern freshman starter Trevor Smith (4 1/3 innings, four earned runs, three walks, four Ks) was the Colonial Athletic Association’s second leading man in ERA at 2.12 entering the game. However, he pitched out of character against the Crimson and simply could not get it done against a relentless Harvard (15-13-1) lineup.

“I don’t even think it was Harvard, I just didn’t throw enough strikes,” Smith said. “I had trouble getting my slider over so I relied on my fastball more and they were sitting on it. They have a lot of disciplined batters. Even with two strikes, they didn’t chase too often and they made me work more.”

While the Huskies could claim they scored and lead first with one run in the first inning, Harvard stayed steady with its run production, starting with two on a Josh Klimkiewicz home run in the first inning and never letting up.

Hampton Foushee, the Crimson starter, baffled NU at times with an array of pitching selections, and held the Huskies to one run over four innings.

“He was not a hard thrower,” Husky senior center fielder and leadoff batter Chris Emanuele said of Foushee. “He threw mostly off-speed to everyone. But he was hitting his spots.”

The Huskies pulled within one in the top half of the fifth inning, but Harvard followed by pulling away for good with two runs in the bottom half and another three runs in the sixth to open an 8-2 lead.

“The thing that hurt the most was that we fell behind and they were ready for my fastball,” Smith said. “They jumped on me early.”

NU made it interesting with three in the seventh inning to come within three runs. With the bases loaded and down by three runs, sophomore third baseman/ left fielder Mike Lyon was up at bat. Lyon made strong contact, but Harvard left fielder Chris Mackey made the catch to end the threat.

The Crimson’s Shawn Haviland then threw one-hit ball for the final two innings to seal the opening-round victory.

“We’re usually a good comeback team,” Emanuele said. “We like to get runs later in the game, but we really should start getting them earlier in the game. But we never get down; we keep fighting to the end.”

Offensively, freshman designated hitter Mike Tamsin had two hits and an RBI while senior left fielder/first baseman Matt Morizio added another two hits for NU. Senior right fielder Jeff Maher produced two RBIs.

“We’ll still approach it like any other game,” Emanuele said of the Beanpot Consolation game. “It’s still at Fenway. We don’t want to be the worst team in the Beanpot. Whoever we play, I’m sure we’ll come out and play well.”

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