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: ‘Pen leads the way for NU

The baseball team’s final weekend before the start of conference play had just about everything, from dominating pitching performances to a walk-off win to close out the weekend yesterday.
Northeastern traveled to South Orange, NJ, to take part in the first annual Strike Out Cancer Tournament, winning two of the three games they played at Seton Hall’s Owen Carroll Field.
‘Anytime you win any weekend, it’s a good weekend,’ said Northeastern manager Neil McPhee.’ ‘The bullpen was exceptional:’ 19 shutout innings. That’s an indication of the depth of the pitching staff.’
Senior third baseman Mike Tamsin ensured Northeastern would emerge with a winning weekend when he lined a single in the bottom of the 14th inning yesterday to give the Huskies a 5-4 win over the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Redshirt freshman outfielder Matt Miller singled up the middle to start the inning and was bunted to second by junior outfielder David Gustafson.
Tamsin stepped up, lining the third pitch from the Highlanders’ Matt Tomczyk (0-2, 72.00) into left center field for the win.
‘He threw me an offspeed pitch first, then a ball,’ Tamsin said. ‘Then another offspeed pitch, which they had been doing all day and I ended up putting a good swing on it.’
NJIT (1-7) jumped’ to an early 4-0 lead, tagging sophomore Les Williams for all their runs during the third inning.
‘Leslie was pitching well,’ McPhee said of Williams (4 innings, 4 runs, 4 strikeouts). ‘He only had one little blip. We had enough pitching to go to the bullpen.’
‘ Junior Charly Bashara and seniors Russ Lloyd and Dan Zehr combined to limit the Highlanders to six hits during the final ten innings. Zehr (2-0, 0.87) pitched the final 5 2/3 innings to grab the win.
‘[Sunday] was a good example of the bullpen holding everything together until we were able to get a big hit,’ McPhee said.
‘ NU scored two runs each in the fifth and sixth innings. Tamsin (3-for-6) drove home Gustafson and freshman shortstop Sam Berg for the Huskies’ first two runs of the game.
Northeastern scored a pair of unearned runs in the sixth to even the score and, despite several good opportunities in the late innings, could not get the winning run across.
‘Each time we got to second base, we couldn’t get them in,’ McPhee said. ‘We kept putting ourselves in position to win the game, but we couldn’t get the big hit. But unless you put yourself in position to win the game, there’s no big hit to be had.’
Miller was 4-for-6 with a run, RBI and three steals on the day from his top spot in the lineup.
‘The positive is that we came back late in the game and tied it,’ McPhee said. ‘Then we played very good baseball, pitched well and played good defense. That really is a huge plus for any program, once you get in that position where you struggle to get offense going, you know the pitching and defense is going to keep it right there.’
On Saturday, Northeastern didn’t have to worry about driving runners home, as Seton Hall righthander Keith Cantwell (2-0, 4.10) blanked the Huskies, striking out 12 while walking two and allowing only a single to sophomore outfielder Jeff Dunlap in the fifth inning.
‘He didn’t elevate any pitches,’ Tamsin said of Cantwell. ‘He made us chase low in the zone and we were hitting from behind all day. It was just a tough day.’
Senior co-captain Jeff Thomson (1-2, 6.14) started for the Huskies, and gave up all six Pirates runs, including a five-run second inning that knocked him out of the game.
‘Jeff is a spot pitcher,’ McPhee said. ‘When he misses his spots, he gives up some runs, but he’ll be right back at it this weekend.’
Senior Trevor Smith and freshman Drew Leenhouts combined to blank Seton Hall (7-5) for the remaining 6 1/3 innings following Thomson’s departure.
The Pirates banged out eleven hits on the afternoon and got an RBI from six different hitters.
Seton Hall DH Chris Affinito and center fielder Matt Smedberg each had three hits for the Pirates.
‘ Junior Ryan Quigley (1-1 3.78)’ helped the Huskies start the weekend with a win, hurling seven innings while allowing only three hits and one earned run to accompany 10 strikeouts as NU downed Iona (0-13) 7-2 Friday.
‘Quigs looked very good,’ McPhee said. ‘He mixed his pitches up well. They were chasing sliders down in the dirt, which was a great out pitch for him.’
Gustafson (2-for-5) gave Northeastern a 2-1 lead in the third with a single through to left field, scoring Berg and junior first baseman Brendan Stokes.
Iona tied it up, but Berg (2-for-3) scored on a wild pitch in the fifth to break the deadlock.
NU broke away in the seventh when Miller (2-for-5) drove home Berg and freshman designated hitter Ryan Kemp.
Mike Brizzolara (0-1 9.00) took the loss for the Gaels, pitching 6 2/3 innings, giving up five runs (four earned).
Northeastern (9-4) begins conference play when they travel to’ Colonial Athletic Association defending champion James Madison (11-7) on Friday at 3 p.m.
‘We’ve done well but our goal is to get into the [conference] tournament,’ McPhee said. ‘We haven’t won a [conference] game yet. That begins for real this weekend.” ‘ ‘

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