BROOKLINE – After a statement win on Tuesday versus out-of-conference, cross-town rival Boston College, Northeastern looked to continue their winning streak versus the struggling Merrimack College Warriors Wednesday.
On the mound for the Huskies was junior pitcher Brett Dunham, who came into the match up with a 9.82 earned runs average in just 3.2 innings of work so far this season. Opposite Dunham for the Warriors stood Colby Barker, the freshman pitcher came into Wednesday’s game with a season ERA of 6.23 in 8.2 innings of work.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Huskies got the scoring going early with a two-run home run from Tyler MacGregor, who had himself an outstanding afternoon at the plate. The graduate student recorded three hits on five at bats, with a pair of doubles on top of the homerun, racking in a total of four RBIs. None of the seven pitchers Merrimack threw were able to combat the steaming-hot bat of MacGregor.
Although the Huskies got off to a quick 2-0 lead, it did not last long. In the second inning, sophomore catcher Matthew Chatelle blasted a two-run home run off a hanging breaking ball making Dunham pay to even out the score. It is unclear how much of a role the Chatelle homer had to play in Dunham not returning for a third inning of work, but nevertheless his afternoon was through after the second stanza.
After the Chatelle home run, the score went back and forth with both teams taking and subsequently losing leads in this game. It was not until a standout sixth inning from the Huskies that a team was able to pull away.
Down 5-4 in the bottom of the inning, the Huskies were able to get two runners in scoring position for Mike Sirota who was able to rope his second double of the game down the right field line to tie it up. Unfortunately, Merrimack was able to get the throw in quickly, not allowing Justin Bosland to score from second. However, just one batter later, hot bat MacGregor was able to knock both Sirota and Bosland in to score with a double of his own to make the score 7-5 Northeastern.
Things continued to go right for the Huskies, and wrong for the Warriors. Merrimack switched through four relief pitchers — Campbell Cassidy, Owen Zadrozny, Dawson Logie, and Zach Broderick; all of whom struggled to retire the Huskies ferocious offense. Broderick was finally able to get the Warriors out of the frame, but not before continued Huskies scoring off the bat of Jack Goodman to make the score 8-5 and walking in another run with the bases loaded and two outs to make the score 9-5 Northeastern.
The final results of the game went as follows: Final score 9-5 Northeastern. Huskies’ pitcher Brendan McFall earned the win, recording his first win of the season after some class shut out pitching from both James Quinlivan and Dennis Colleran to seal the deal. Merrimack’s Zadrozny was charged with the loss to mark his record at 0-1 on the year.
With that home win the Huskies improve to a record of 14-5 overall, and remain undefeated at Parsons Field with four wins so far at home.
The Huskies return to action again on Friday to begin a much anticipated three-game series with CAA conference rival Hofstra in Hempstead, New York. Written coverage of the series will be provided on our website.