Three weeks ago the Northeastern baseball team was in a three-way tie for third place in the Colonial Athletic Association with UNC-Wilmington and Virginia Commonwealth. Since then they have gone 7-4 to claim third place for themselves.
“Our pitching is unbelievable and our hitting is coming around,” said senior Chris Emanuele. “We are playing well at the end of the season when it counts.”
Most recently the Huskies dropped two of three to visiting Hofstra. The one win came Saturday with junior Dave Pellegrine throwing a complete game, seven-hit shutout to get the 2-0 win.
“I was just worried about getting the win,” Pellegrine said. “There were two runs on the board and I was focused on trying to keep the lead. Of course, you want as much run support as possible, but when the bats are cold, they are cold.”
Senior Jeff Maher hit a solo home run in the fifth inning and senior Arman Sidhu followed with a single and would come around to score on a sacrifice fly by Emanuele.
Friday Hofstra topped Northeastern 3-2 with junior Adam Ottavino getting the loss. The Huskies attempted a ninth-inning rally, scoring one run. Emanuele hit an RBI double in that ninth inning to close the gap to one run, but Sidhu popped out with runners on second and third to end the threat.
Emanuele was 3-5 with two doubles on the day. His second hit was his 216th, breaking the Northeastern all-time hits record of 215 set by former Husky shortstop Kevin Kim.
“It is a great accomplishment,” he said. “It feels great to play all these games and have it add up. It was in the back of my head that it was coming up but I tried not to think about it.”
Sunday Hofstra won the game in the last two innings, scoring three runs to win the game 7-5. Junior Dan Milano hit his eighth home run of the season in the eighth inning.
“We had a tough weekend,” Pellegrine said. “But we have been swinging the bat well and it will be fine.”
On May 3 the Huskies dropped a 7-5 game to non-conference opponent Harvard. Harvard third baseman Steffan Wilson hit a three-run, inside-the-park home run in the ninth inning to cap a five-run rally off senior Matt Morizio. Emanuele slipped on the wet grass trying to catch the ball allowing Wilson to make it all the way home.
The Huskies had built up their earlier lead thanks to a four-run second inning. Morizio started the inning with a single and scored when Maher doubled to deep left-center. Maher came around on a sacrifice fly by freshman James Donaldson.
Later in the inning with sophomores Josh Porter and Alex Fox on base, Emanuele ripped a double to left-center to score both runners and give NU a 4-1 lead.
The Huskies finished off the month of April with a three-game sweep of William ‘ Mary, a win over Massachusetts in the Beanpot consolation game at Fenway, and a three-game series with Towson in which the Huskies won two of three.
