BROOKLINE, MA — Baseball is a beautiful game. It provides some of the most famous underdog stories in sports. So often, outmatched opponents pull out wins from under the noses of much better teams.
Northeastern has taken this and flipped it on its head. Very few teams in college baseball have been as consistent as the Huskies, and they proved it again on Sunday with an 11–0 win over the Hofstra Pride.
The Pride dropped the first three games of the series and came into Sunday with a chance to get back to winning ways. Freshman righty Wyatt Scotti started for the Huskies, giving the Pride the best shot at an early lead they’d had all series.
Scotti denied the Pride that opportunity, pitching like a seasoned veteran through eight innings of shutout ball, allowing only two hits, and putting up a pair of strikeouts to boot.
“He was awesome,” Northeastern head coach Mike Glavine said. “He’s having an incredible year. [He] flys right under the radar of [Kyle] Murphy, Sebastian [Keane], and [Cam] Schlittler.”
Scotti had his best control of the season, pounding the strike zone with his lethal mix of fastballs, curveballs, and changeups. Scotti had a rough first and third inning, but settled in to retire the last 15 batters he faced.
Northeastern’s bats got things started early, as Ryan Cervone, getting his first start of the weekend, knocked an RBI single into the gap in right center to score Jared Dupere. The Huskies scored one run in each of the first three innings, driving the score up to 3–0 by the time Scotti took the mound in the fourth.
Hofstra starter John Mikolaicyk was chased from the game in the fifth after plunking Scott Holzwasser and walking Dupere. Holzwasser stole third to put runners in the corners, but there was a bigger moment for the second baseman, as his 77th career stolen bag gave him the program record.
Reliever Brad Camarda came in to relieve the ailing starter and quickly began to struggle. Danny Crossen hit into a fielder’s choice off the first pitch of the at bat, driving Dupere across the plate. A sacrifice fly from Ian Fair boosted the Northeastern lead to five in as many innings.
The Huskies struck again after the stretch, hanging three runs on the board. JP Olson got in on the fun, knocking in Kyle Peterson and Cervone with a triple to right-center field. Spenser Smith had an RBI ground-out before Jeff Costello followed suit to end the inning.
The bottom of the eighth saw Dupere do what he had done all weekend long: hit dingers. A mammoth two-run blast that cleared the bleachers in right field set the tone for the frame, as the Huskies continued to hit the ball very, very hard. Cervone and Crossen each barreled the ball, but couldn’t keep the ball out of the Pride’s gloves. Fair poked a single through the gap and stole second, which allowed Peterson to drive him in with a single, giving the Huskies their 11th run.
Northeastern will make the trip down to Hempstead, New York to play Hofstra again this Wednesday. It’s a quick turnaround for a team that has played four games in three days, but Glavine was confident in his team’s ability to take care of themselves.
“Tomorrow is just a recovery day,” he said, “We really preach eating well, getting sleep, and how they help us win.”