BROOKLINE — As the baseball dropped between sophomore Ryan Gerety and junior Cam Maldonado in the right-centerfield gap, a hush fell over Friedman Diamond. Just like that, perfection through 8.1 frames was gone.
But what surrounded it was still dominance — the best pitching performance of the season, as graduate student Max Gitlin went the distance in a complete game shutout to prove Northeastern the superior brand of Husky over UConn.
After picking up the loss on March 19 against Boston College, in which Gitlin surrendered four earned runs in 3.2 innings to balloon his ERA north of 7.00, the hurler entered his start against a talented UConn squad with a chip on his shoulder.
The Huskies from Connecticut, despite a 10-12 record entering play, defeated No. 14 Vanderbilt and No. 17 UNC with a powerhouse offense that sports a team OPS just south of .800.
Just over two hours after Gitlin toed the slab in the first inning, on his 116th pitch of the afternoon, UConn’s Rob Rispoli flew out to Gerety in right field, stranding a run 90 feet away to cap off a 1-for-28 offensive showing against Gitlin in a 3-0 NU win.
“[Gitlin’s] competitive. He’s tough. He pitches with an edge, and he knows how to pitch the ball in and out, change speeds, and get soft contact,” Northeastern head coach Mike Glavine said postgame.
In the lefty’s masterpiece, he struck out just one UConn hitter.
“He only struck out one guy, but that’s the art of pitching,” Glavine said. “You can sit here and tell me about all those guys who throw 95 to 100, and they don’t know how to pitch. [Gitlin’s performance] was pitching.”
Northeastern grabbed their first run in the third inning on an RBI sacrifice fly by redshirt junior Harrison Feinberg.
However, the bottom of the lineup delivered the majority of the offensive contributions. Graduate student Gregory Bozzo and junior Jack Doyle, NU’s seventh and eighth hitters, respectively, both went 3-for-4 at the plate.
In the fourth inning, Doyle roped a one-out double down the left field line and crossed the plate alongside freshman Eric Cha after UConn third baseman Tyler Minick’s errant throw on junior Carmelo Musacchia’s infield single.
Doyle also made a number of sharp plays in the field, helping to preserve Gitlin’s perfecto bid as long as it lasted.
“Doyle was outstanding today,” Glavine said. “He played great defense over there at third base and added three knocks. We need the Jack Doyle that we had today. He got off to a little bit of a slow start [to the season], and he had an injury. Now he’s back, and if he can get going like this — and he’s certainly capable of it — our offense will be much better again.”
After Gitlin retired the first 25 hitters he faced, UConn went to a pinch hitter in Sam Biller, who ripped a double to break up the perfect game bid. However, Gitlin’s resilience carried him to the finish line as he retired the next two batters.
NU now leads the NCAA with six shutouts.
Northeastern will resume CAA play this weekend when they travel to Stony Brook for a three-game set with the Seawolves. WRBB will have written coverage of the series.