Northeastern hit the road over the weekend, traveling the furthest distance in the conference to face off against the College of Charleston in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. After squeaking by with a 12-inning win on Friday and suffering a crushing 18-5 loss on Saturday, it all came down to Sunday’s game.
Northeastern slowly inched ahead thanks to three straight innings with one run each, but was brought down by a rally from the Cougars on their Senior Day at the bottom of the eighth, eventually falling 6-3.
Charleston’s starting pitcher Connor Campbell lasted a whopping 7.0 innings throwing 88 pitches and allowed just two earned runs.
Those runs started in the top of the fifth, when the Huskies found some footing with their three-inning offensive stretch.
Freshman outfielder Ryan Gerety started off the fifth inning with a double. Then, Greg Bozzo’s sacrifice bunt and Cam Maldonado’s groundout left just enough room for Gerety to run home and put the first run on the board.
In the sixth inning, designated hitter Alex Lane did what he’s been doing all season, knocking a solo bomb over the left field wall to double Northeastern’s lead.
The Huskies’ final run came through on another good hustle from Gerety. He reached on a fielding error, and ran home off another groundout and sacrifice play combo to put Northeastern up 3-0.
With the Huskies holding a three-inning scoring streak, Charleston opened up the bullpen, bringing in Hayden Thomas to pitch a 1-2-3 top of the eighth.
Meanwhile on the pitching side for Northeastern, Michael Gemma started on the mound, but the senior right-hander looked a little shaky — his first at bat allowed Avery Neaves on base with a hit by pitch. However, he held off the Cougars for two innings before junior Dennis Colleran came out of the bullpen for the longest appearance of his career.
Colleran lasted 5.1 innings, notching six strikeouts, but struggled to put batters away in the bottom of the eighth. After a walk, three singles, and two runs allowed with just one out, Northeastern brought in closer Jack Beauchesne to do the rest. But the junior righty didn’t fare any better. In his first two at bats, Beauchesne allowed a walk to load the bases and a grand slam from graduate student Kevin Madden, launching Charleston to a 6-3 lead.
Junior right-hander Davis Aiken closed out the Cougars’ Senior Day success, pitching a scoreless top of the ninth. Northeastern sophomore Jack Goodman got on base with a single, but was left stranded when Aiken struck out Gerety and first-baseman Cole Mathis caught Bozzo’s foul ball.
The loss drops Northeastern’s conference record to 15-9, but the all-around CAA results from the weekend clinched them a spot in the conference tournament. The Huskies will head to Lowell on Tuesday before returning to Friedman Diamond for one last CAA series, against Stony Brook, to close out the regular season.
The first pitch between the Huskies and the UMass Lowell River Hawks is set for Tuesday at 3 p.m.