BRIGHTON — With the sun setting on Northeastern’s first Baseball Beanpot championship appearance in six years, and their Power 5 opponent Boston College beginning to throw in the towel to the 7-0 Huskies lead, the Northeastern bench eagerly awaited the moment they could rush the field and claim their first Beanpot trophy since 2013.
“It wasn’t just another midweek game,” said head coach Mike Glavine. “I think the Beanpot is a cool way to add some emotion and energy and I thought we had it all day long.”
With stellar pitching across the board, and by capitalizing on the Eagles’ defensive mistakes, the Huskies silenced BC through all nine innings, earning a shutout victory to take home the team’s seventh Beanpot title.
The game started off quiet on both sides, with starting pitchers Michael Gemma (Northeastern) and Evan Moore (BC) locked in a battle.
After a rocky start in last week’s Baseball Beanpot semifinal, where he walked three batters and hit two with pitches in just one inning, Gemma redeemed himself. Through a four-frame performance, including two 1-2-3 innings, the right-hander struck out four batters and allowed just one hit — BC’s only hit of the game.
Meanwhile, Moore went nine up, nine down to start the matchup, but stumbled in the top of the fourth when the Huskies returned to the top of their lineup. The righty walked the leadoff batter, Luke Beckstein, and singles from the next two hitters — Tyler MacGregor and Alex Lane — brought the second baseman home to give Northeastern the early lead.
Then, things really fell apart for BC when the Huskies started stealing. MacGregor and Lane attempted a double steal, and although MacGregor was caught at third, Lane didn’t stop there. A few minutes later, the graduate student booked it to third base, and once BC catcher Parker Landwehr’s throw sailed into the outfield, it gave Lane space to run home.
“You want to score first, always,” Glavine said. “But we want to put pressure … Just constantly put pressure on teams and make them make plays.”
With two runs scored by Northeastern, the end of the inning also marked the end of Moore’s day. But the next couple pitchers didn’t fare any better. Freshmen Kyle Kipp and Gavin Hasche combined for just 0.1 innings pitched and three runs against, two of which came off wild pitches, extending Northeastern’s lead to five. Finally, righty senior Aidan Crowley came into the game and kept the Huskies quiet through his 1.2 innings of work.
Although Gemma’s day was also done, the Huskies continued their pitching success through to the end with the combination of Charlie Walker, Dennis Colleran, and James Quinlivan. With Walker’s low reset time, Colleran’s blistering fastballs, and Quinlivan combining the two styles, BC only landed one more runner on base off a walk to start the bottom of the eighth.
“Both guys came out attacking the zone, and then we just [got] some fortunate breaks there, but earned them, pushed for it, and then it becomes a battle of the bullpens,” Glavine said.
While winning the “battle of the bullpens,” the Huskies got their last couple licks in in the top of the seventh. Beckstein started things off with his 23rd hit by pitch of the season, leading the country in that regard and upping his team-leading on base percentage to .563. Then, MacGregor continued his successful evening with a triple to score Beckstein. Going 3-for-5 on the day, MacGregor nearly made it a full cycle with a single, a double, and a triple, but came up empty in his last at bat.
After making it all the way to third with no outs, MacGregor wasn’t going to leave empty-handed. Center fielder Mike Sirota took the bullet for his teammate with a sacrifice fly to finish MacGregor’s trip around the bases, and extended Northeastern’s lead to 7-0.
By the eighth inning, the Eagles knew it was over. They started replacing every man in the lineup, letting some new faces get some reps in, as Northeastern sped towards a championship title.
With so many strong hitters on both sides, nobody expected the two team’s starters to go pitch for pitch, but the collective composure on the mound was just what Northeastern needed to propel itself to another dominant win during an already remarkable season.
“We felt like we had something to prove today and that’s how we played,” Glavine said.” And I’m proud of our guys for that.”
The Huskies have won 11 of their past 12 games and will look to continue that success when they travel to Delaware this weekend for a conference series. First pitch is scheduled for Friday at 4 p.m. Written coverage will be provided on WRBB’s website following the matchup.