The Northeastern University baseball team captured its first Beanpot crown since 2009 as the Huskies defeated UMass at Fenway Park this evening, 6-3.
UMass jumped out to a 2-0 lead after three frames, but Northeastern rallied with four runs in the fourth, which included a home run by Rob Fonseca that reached the Green Monster to secure the lead for good.
Fonseca finished with two runs, two hits and one RBI, while teammates Michael Foster, John Puttress and Pete Castoldi combined for four runs. Matt Cook picked up his second win on the bump, while Michael Foster recorded his first save of the season.
Rob McLam and Dylan Begin combined for UMass’ three runs, while Aaron Plunkett earned his fourth loss of the season.
With the win, NU improves to 24-17 overall, while UMass slips to 10-25.
BROOKLINE, MA – Things appeared bleak for the Northeastern University baseball team on Tuesday.
Facing a four-run deficit heading into their final offensive frame, the Huskies bats came alive to produce five unanswered runs, which helped them sneak past Boston College, 12-11.
“We have had a number of games where we have scored runs late, we’ve comeback, scored runs early, scored in all parts of the game, and that’s a great sign to come out of the gate hot or to comeback and have big innings late in the game,” said Northeastern head coach Neil McPhee. “We’re scoring [in] every inning – every part of the game, so that’s a great sign for us.”
Northeastern junior John Puttress tied the game with an RBI double, and then recorded the game-winning run – three batters later- when he raced across home plate following a wild pitch by Boston College junior Kyle Prohovich, which prompted a victory celebration on Friedman Diamond.
“[I’ve] just been sticking with the same approach, and I knew [Prohovich] was going to come at me, so I just waited for a fastball, made sure I hit [it and] put a good swing on it,” Puttress said of his game-tying hit.
“Starting in Jacksonville, there were a couple of times where I came up with runners on base, and I just happened to hit the ball hard, and good things happen, so it’s just been building confidence ever since then,” added Puttress. “I know that the pitcher’s going to have to challenge me, and I just know what I have to do.”
Freshman Alex McKeon helped Northeastern earn an early one-run advantage in the bottom of the second before Boston College’s offense beat-up sophomore Matt Cook, who yielded seven runs on five hits in the top of the third.
“My control was just not there, and some pitches I thought were close to the strike zone than the umpire did, and you can’t point fingers in that situation,” said Cook. “I did not throw well, I didn’t throw enough strikes, and they just hit the ball hard and where players weren’t, so that’s what happens against a good team when you don’t have your control and don’t have your best stuff.”
Northeastern responded in the bottom of that same inning with four runs to make the score, 7-5, and then combined for a pair in the fifth and sixth frames, but that didn’t halt Boston College’s offense from tacking on an additional four more runs, as senior Andrew Lawrence,juniors Rob Moir and Matt Paré , and freshman John Gorman all touched the dish.
Boston College never recorded a run following the fifth inning, as Northeastern held the Eagles offense to one hit, and four stranded runners before senior Matt Milner, juniors Jon Leroux and Pete Castoldi,freshman Jason Vosler and Puttress each recorded a run to help the Huskies rally in the bottom of the ninth to win the game.
“We’ve had a couple of those taken away from us recently, and it’s nice to get one ourselves,” said McPhee. “You win a game in the bottom of the ninth, especially coming back from that much down is a huge win, it’s just another big step forward for the season and for the program.”
“We’ve been coming back all year. We’re one of the better hitting teams in the conference, [and] I had no doubt that we would have a chance to win this game at the end,” said Puttress.
Northeastern is now 12-7 overall this season, and will attempt to capture three critical victories this weekend when they host Virginia Commonwealth for a weekend series, while Boston College will look to snap their two-game losing streak on Wednesday against Bryant University.
Northeastern Baseball earned an important win against Hofstra on Saturday.
By Josh Kummins
BROOKLINE, MA - After Les Williams’ impressive complete-game performance on the Friedman Diamond mound Friday, junior Andrew Leenhouts tossed eight innings of two-hit ball to lead the Northeastern Huskies to a 1-0 win over Hofstra in Colonial Athletic Association baseball action on Saturday.
Saturday’s win extended Northeastern’s shutout streak to 19.1 innings and marks the first time since April 2005 when the Huskies shutout local rivals Hartford and UMass. During the series against the Hawks, which occurred six years ago the Huskies outscored their opposition, 33-6.
Despite many quality scoring opportunities throughout the entire game, the true story of this contest was the pitching duel between Leenhouts and Hofstra senior, Rob Kumbatovic.
Hofstra’s chances were not as sizable as Northeastern’s because Leenhouts found his way out of a sixth inning jam when he walked center fielder Danny Poma and third baseman Joe Perez before inducing a 4-3 groundout to the Pride’s designated hitter, Dylan Nasitaka.
The Hofstra offense managed just a pair of hits in the game that were collected by Poma and first baseman Jared Hammer during the third and fifth innings.
The Huskies left 13 runners on base, which was a season high and squandered a pair of runs during four separate innings.
Kumbatovic allowed six hits and walked five batters, but kept the Pride base runners stranded before they could cross the plate. He allowed a few single hits during the fourth and sixth innings before allowing two runners to reach the base path during the fifth inning.
The former NECBL, [New England Collegiate Baseball League] pitcher has yet to win a game, but gave way to fellow senior Jeff Guthridge in the eighth inning who finished with one earned run, which happened to be the game winner.
Huskies freshman second baseman Connor Lyons walked to lead-off the last of the ninth inning and advanced to second base when Aaron Barbosa laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt for the first out. The Pride intentionally walked junior co-captain and first baseman Matt Miller, but Guthridge uncorked a wild pitch to bring Lyons within 90 feet of home plate.
After throwing four balls to left fielder Jeff Dunlap and designated hitter Jon Leroux flied out to deep to shallow left field, Pete Castoldi came through with a walk-off RBI single that one-hopped the right-center field wall.
Castoldi, who struggled all day, made contact on the only ball that mattered, which gave the Huskies their second one-run win of the season.
Barbosa extended a nine-game hitting streak, which dates back to March 26, as well as stole his 12th base of the season, he currently leads his team in stolen bases. Leroux also doubled in the first inning to extend his current four-game hit streak.
Huskies sophomore Dylan Maki hurled a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn his second win of the season, as well as improve to [2-1].
Northeastern will look to sweep the three-game series with Brandon McNelis taking the ball Sunday afternoon. The Huskies have not swept a divisional foe since defeating Delaware in May 2009.
