BROOKLINE – Northeastern plays quite well at home, coming into Tuesday’s game against UConn with a home record of 13-3. But Tuesday may have been their best performance at Friedman Diamond this season.
For this early afternoon bout, the other Huskies of UConn came to Brookline looking to take advantage of the same Northeastern team that just lost two of three to North Carolina A&T over the weekend.
Instead, it was an offensive onslaught for Northeastern.
UConn marched out one of their more reliable starters, graduate senior Gabriel Van Emon, who came into the match up with a season ERA of 6.28 through 43 innings of work. For Van Emon, Tuesday was not his day; in just one inning of work, he allowed three hits, five runs, two walks, and two home runs.
Van Emon was not the only UConn pitcher who was bounced after only a short outing that did not go their way. In fact, none of the nine arms they threw against Northeastern lasted longer than 1.1 innings.
Northeastern trotted out Michael Gemma, who came into the outing with an ERA of 5.14 through 28 innings of work. He only tallied two innings but performed well, notching three strikeouts and only allowing one hit. However, that lone hit was a solo homer off the bat of junior Bryan Padilla.
“I thought that was the sharpest he’s looked [this year],” said Northeastern head coach Mike Glavine.
The true story of the game, however, was Northeastern’s spectacular offensive performance. They slammed eight home runs in just the first six innings.
The long ball was on display from the first inning when Mike Sirota took Van Emon long, and immediately after Tyler MacGregor followed with one of his own. The Huskies were close to going back-to-back-to-back when Alex Lane hit one that cleared the left field fence, but UConn left fielder Korey Morton was able to pull it back into play – holding Northeastern to only a three-run lead.
Both MacGregor and Sirota had multiple home runs, combining for five on the day. MacGregor belted out three (his 15th, 16th, and 17th of the year), and Sirota sent two over the wall (his fifth and sixth on the year). The Huskies also got home run contributions from Gregory Bozzo, Cam Maldonado, and Jack Goodman, who knocked a grand slam in the fifth inning to extend the lead to 18-3.
When asked about his team’s ability to hit the ball out of the yard, Glavine first credited strength and conditioning coach Jason Aguiar for getting the team in great shape. He also said that the team has been very committed in the weight room and on the field. According to Glavine, all of those factors have contributed to Northeastern’s great hitting.
The Huskies will return to action this weekend down in Charleston, South Carolina, as they take on fellow CAA rival the College of Charleston for a three game series starting on Friday.