BROOKLINE — After their close 7-6 win up the road at UConn on Wednesday, Northeastern returned home to the friendly confines of Friedman Diamond to resume CAA conference play against Monmouth.
After a scoreless first inning, the Husky offense exploded en route to a lopsided 14-3 victory that gave head coach Mike Glavine his 289th win in the program, the second most in Northeastern history.
Glavine handed the ball to redshirt senior Jake Gigliotti, who started last Friday against Hofstra. Gigliotti struggled in the early innings, surrendering two earned runs in the first and one in the third.
In the two games leading up to Monmouth, Northeastern’s bullpen had been extremely worked, as Glavine used five pitchers in both contests. However, Gigliotti gave the Husky arms much-needed rest; besides the early struggles, he was brilliant, going six strong innings of three earned run baseball.
“You’re hoping your starter can give you five for sure on a Friday so you don’t have to go to your bullpen right away,” Glavine said. “[Gigliotti] did that and gave us six in what are challenging conditions. Some cold weather and wind. I thought it was awesome for him to give us six innings.”
Following a scoreless first frame, NU scored at least two runs in six straight innings, with three runs in the fifth and seventh frames.
For Monmouth head coach Dean Ehehalt, ace Drew Helmstetter toed the slab. The southpaw entered the start leading the Hawks in innings pitched and sported an impressive 2.86 ERA. However, Northeastern ballooned that number to 4.19 after they were finished with him.
In the second inning, sophomore Jack Goodman started the action with a rocket double to right field before junior Jack Doyle walked. Then, sophomore Carmelo Musacchia laid down a perfect bunt base hit to load the bases with no outs.
After sophomore Cam Maldonado grounded into a fielder’s choice — in which Monmouth third baseman Matt Scrivanic forced Goodman out at the plate — freshman Ryan Gerety, in his second collegiate start, came up huge.
In place of star junior Mike Sirota, who was out with “soreness,” per Glavine, Gerety ripped a single into the right-centerfield gap, scoring Doyle and Musacchia and tying the score 2-2.
“For me, [Gerety] was the player of the game,” Glavine said. “Here comes a freshman making his first conference start left-on-left and gets a big hit. I know the score was separated, but that was the biggest hit of the game.”
The Hawks re-took the lead in the third, but Northeastern quickly answered. With senior Luke Beckstein at third and graduate transfer Tyler MacGregor at first, graduate student Alex Lane scored Beckstein on a sacrifice fly to tie the score at three.
The Huskies took the 4-3 lead later in the inning on a double steal with runners at the corners, as MacGregor crossed the plate before Doyle was tagged out in between first and second base.
The bottom of the fourth frame was one of the most peculiar half-innings in Northeastern baseball history. With one out and Musacchia at third, Glavine called for senior Gregory Bozzo to deliver a suicide squeeze.
Musacchia ran on the pitch, but Bozzo forgot to square to bunt and left Musacchia hung out to dry. Somehow, the sophomore evaded the third baseman Scrivanic’s tag and scored. Because there was no bunt, Musacchia officially stole home in the scorebook to make it 5-3.
Bozzo’s at-bat continued, and on a 2-1 fastball, he crushed his third big fly of the year on a line drive to left-centerfield, increasing the Huskies’ advantage to three runs.
In the fifth inning, one of the frames in which NU plated three runs, Musacchia delivered again. With Lane and Goodman at second, he rifled a single through the left side to score the former. Musacchia got thrown out trying to steal second base, leaving Goodman at third with two outs.
However, Maldonado mirrored Musacchia’s single to left and scored Goodman. Then, Bozzo came up big again and torched a double the other way over the head of right fielder Eric Sabato to score Maldonado.
The sixth inning began with a Beckstein single. After a passed ball and a MacGregor ground out, Beckstein was 90 feet away from another NU run. Despite the wind blowing straight inward, the Husky homerun leader Lane destroyed a blast over the left field wall, his ninth round-tripper of the season.
“You gotta be careful of taking him for granted,” Glavine said. “He’s just a pro to me. Lane just hits a ball through the wind. I am just in awe of what he’s doing.”
The final Northeastern offensive splash came in the bottom of the seventh inning. With one out and Musacchia and Maldonado in scoring position, Gerety collected his second knock of the day up the middle and scored Musacchia.
Two more Northeastern runs crossed thanks to an error that scored Maldonado and Lane’s third hit of the day to score Gerety.
In the game, NU hit an unbelievable .475 to score the 14 Husky runs.
“The offense did an awesome job today top to bottom,” Glavine said. “We executed a game plan that we talked about yesterday and today. Gigliotti settled down and pitched great. It was a great win.”
Glavine was also impressed with the two sophomores in Musacchia and Maldonado, both of whom went 3-for-5.
“We gotta get those two going,” he said. “We love Beck [Beckstein], Ty [Tyler MacGregor], and Lane. They have been carrying us all year. But it’s good to see those two get going.”
Besides the assertive victory, one concern manifests in the absence of Sirota. Glavine gave an update on the star postgame.
“He’s a little sore,” he said. “We have been playing a lot. I am hoping it is not long-term and just a rest day. Maybe he will return tomorrow. If it is not tomorrow, hopefully Sunday.”
Regardless, Northeastern set the tone for the rest of the series and looked to take the positive momentum into the final two games against Monmouth this weekend.
The Huskies are back in action on Saturday for the middle game of the three-game set versus Monmouth. WRBB will have live coverage of the contest with Max Schwartzberg, Luke Graham and Zeno Minotti on the call on WRBB Sports+. The first pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.