BROOKLINE – Just like the last eight games played at Friedman Diamond, Northeastern once again dominated at home with a 12-1 mercy-rule victory over a struggling UMass squad in the first round of the baseball Beanpot on Tuesday afternoon.
As always, the offense was the key to the victory for the Huskies, despite once again being without star Mike Sirota, who according to coach Mike Glavine will hopefully be available for Friday’s game to open the series against Towson.
On the bump for this one, the Huskies trotted out right-hander Michael Gemma. The senior came into the outing having made six prior appearances, racking up 16.0 innings of work. Over that period Gemma had accumulated a respectable 3.94 ERA, only allowing 13 hits and 10 walks while striking out 20 batters. For Gemma, Tuesday’s game was very much not the same.
It was a day of struggle for Gemma, who was pulled after just one inning of work. For Gemma, it was not that UMass was able to hit his pitches, but rather he was unable to locate the zone. Not to mention he was not able to control his pitches from hitting multiple UMass batters, one of which beamed Braden Sullivan in the head which led to a scary moment for all 300 people in attendance at Friedman Diamond. By the end of the inning, Gemma let up three walks and hit two batters altogether.
“It was the first really bad one of the year, he just didn’t look prepared to me,” Glavine said on what had gone wrong for the most reliable of the Huskies starters this season, “From watching the bullpen, to warm ups in between innings, I had a feeling it was coming [based] on what I saw, unfortunately, I was right. …Hopefully it’s a learning experience for him because he just wasn’t sharp. He just wasn’t ready to go. It wasn’t him. He’s healthy. And he’ll be back out there next week.”
Despite the struggles of their starter, Northeastern was not phased and was still able to limit the Minutemen to one run on two hits. That being said, walks continued to be a challenge for the Huskies pitchers, allowing a total of seven on the day and three hit batters.
For Northeastern, what really piggy backed them to their 22nd victory was the thunderous offense. What started the onslaught for the Huskies was an Alex Lane two-run homerun over the center field wall, his tenth of the year. Knocking in what ended up being the game winning run.
After a multi-run third inning via a Harrison Feinberg RBI double and a Gregory Bozzo homerun to make the score 6-1, the Huskies entered into the fifth inning comfortably in the driver’s seat. The Huskies proceeded to put up six runs in the inning which led to the final score of 12-1, and would eventually be the catalyst leading up to the mercy-rule being enacted on UMass in the seventh inning.
With the win, the Huskies improve to a record of 22-6, 9-0 at home, and 17-5 in out of conference play.
As Northeastern continues to play great baseball, they will travel to Maryland and return to action on Friday to begin a three game series against fellow CAA rival Towson. They will look to improve their 5-1 record in conference play and gain their second series win against a CAA opponent. WRBB will provide written coverage of the matchups.