BROOKLINE — It’s been a whirlwind of a weekend for Northeastern baseball.
Playing their fourth game in three days, the Huskies have felt the highest of highs in a 12-inning walkoff win Friday and the lowest of lows with yesterday’s shutout loss to the Maine Black Bears.
They’re back on the up-and-up, though, after a convincing offensive effort from the entire lineup pushed the Huskies to a 13-5 Sunday afternoon victory over Maine.
The man of the weekend has been senior outfielder Harrison Feinberg, who already had eight RBIs under his belt over the course of the last three games. He got things started quite nicely against Black Bears senior righty Vaun Larisa in the first inning, demolishing the third pitch he saw 433 feet over the bullpen situated in left field to give the Huskies an early 1-0 lead
Right-handed redshirt senior Ryan McCarroll got the nod as Northeastern’s fourth starter of the weekend and started hot on the mound with two back-to-back 1-2-3 innings to get his day started. Maine would end up striking early in the third, though, with sophomore outfielder Christopher Mondesir sneaking a double down the left field line.
He was followed up by senior backup catcher Nolan DeAndrade, getting the nod to rest the Black Bears’ normal starter, junior Shane Andrus. DeAndrade made the most of his opportunity, launching his own bomb over the left field wall on the first pitch of the at-bat for his first homer of the season, giving Maine a 2-1 lead.
McCarroll got his bearings right back under him and worked his way out of the inning. He continued all the way through the fourth for his longest outing of the season, ending his day to the tune of four strikeouts, no walks, just three hits, and two earned runs coming off the DeAndrade long ball.
“Ryan McCarroll pitched really well,” said Northeastern head coach Mike Glavine. “Just one bad pitch, and they hit it out, but he pitched really well, great to see, get him extended.”
The bottom half of the fourth is when things truly started to come together for the Huskies. Northeastern fielded a rather young lineup, with underclassmen representing six of the nine batters.
And it was the kids who opened the floodgates, with freshmen infielders AJ Aschettino and Tyler Harmony hitting consecutive singles to left field, the former coming around to score on the latter’s base knock.
They were followed up by another single from sophomore outfielder Carter Bentley to put a pair of ducks on the pond for the Huskies’ backup catcher, fellow sophomore Will Fosberg. Just like DeAndrade an inning and a half before, Fosberg took the start and ran with it, bringing Harmony home for the lead with a double down the left field line.
Bentley too would find his way home on a fielder’s choice off the bat of sophomore shortstop Henry DiGiorgio, who was given the start after Glavine’s normal choice at short, senior Carmelo Musacchia, got into a bit of a tussle in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader.
A new arm came out in the fifth inning for the Huskies in graduate student Matthew Sapienza, Glavine sticking with right-handed arms to combat the righty-heavy Maine lineup (seven of the nine Black Bears bats stood on the right side of the batters box).
It wasn’t the easiest beginning to Sapienza’s outing, with Mondesir and DeAndrade once again getting back-to-back hits, followed up shortly by Maine’s leadoff man, junior infielder Nic Pepe, who doubled to right field and tied the game at four apiece.
But the bottom of Northeastern’s lineup would once again come through for their turn in the fifth, with Maine opting for a reliever of their own in freshman righty Thomas Stabley. Aschettino reached second base from a base hit and stolen bag, and was promptly brought home by Harmony’s second consecutive single to give the Huskies a 5-4 lead.
Sapienza settled in further in the top of the sixth inning, but was certainly aided by Northeastern’s bats coming to life in the bottom half of the frame. DiGiorgio singled to left center, followed up by an infield single from freshman second baseman Charlie Criscola to put two on the basepaths for Feinberg.
Ice in his veins, Feinberg blasted the score wide open, going yard to deep center field with his second 400+ foot home run of the game to give the Huskies a handy 8-4 lead.
After a double from senior designated hitter Matt Brinker, the successes continued for the bottom half of Northeastern’s lineup, with yet another set of base hits for the rookie duo of Aschettino and Harmony. Aschettino brought Brinker home with his hit, then stole third and scored on a wild throw from DeAndrade to put the Huskies into double digits.
Mondesir would once again make his name known, getting one back for Maine with a homer to right field to lead off the seventh inning, but Sapienza remained cool, calm, and collected, shutting down the next three batters he saw with ease.
With redshirt senior righty Sebastian Holt taking the mound for the Black Bears in the bottom of the seventh, Bentley got in on the long-ball fun. He responded to Mondesir’s home run with the first of his own career into the visitor’s bullpen in left center field.
DiGiorgio reached base again on a single down the left field line and stole second to get into scoring position for the top of Northeastern’s lineup; though Criscola flew out, the next man up was none other than Feinberg.
Let’s take a walk down memory lane for a moment.
Remember Feinberg’s first 400-foot-plus home run to left? And his second one to deep center field?
Well, right field felt a little bit left out of the action. And there’s truly nowhere in the vicinity of Friedman Diamond that Feinberg’s bat can’t reach.
The senior slugger blasted his most impressive bomb of the afternoon, clearing the right-field press box with ease for his third home run of the game. It would bring his RBI total to an astounding 14 on the weekend and secured a 13-5 lead for the Huskies.
“[Feinberg’s] pretty good, isn’t he?” Glavine said. “[I] can’t say enough about him as a baseball player. He obviously has tremendous power, but he’s good a baseball IQ of anybody I’ve ever coached, and he’s an all around player. He can run the bases, he can defend, he can throw, and he just does so many things on the baseball field. Today was one of the best performances I’ve seen at the plate.”
Sapienza would get through two more outs in the top of the eighth, completing his outing with 3.2 innings pitched, allowing three runs on five hits. He did exactly what was needed of him out of the bullpen, going for his lengthiest stint of the season thus far. In a span of seven days with six games in the mix, the extended time on the mound was much appreciated by Glavine, as the Huskies look as well-staffed as possible heading into Tuesday’s upcoming Beanpot final against a very strong team in Boston College.
Right-handed graduate student Andrew Wertz came out to finish the game for Northeastern, pitching an impressive final 1.1 innings (12 pitches, no hits, no walks, no runs) to seal the Huskies’ 13-5 victory.
With all nine of Northeastern’s bats getting hits on the day, the momentum is the exact kind of offensive boost that the Huskies wanted out of the day. Feinberg’s three homers were responsible for six of Northeastern’s runs; the other seven were all generated from the bottom five hitters of the lineup.
The game’s success is timely for the impending Beanpot championship, especially with all the successes at the plate for some atypical names.
“We’re dinged up right now,” Glavine said. “Our guys step up. Great to see the young guys, the guys who haven’t played a lot; DiGiorgio had a great game today, Harmony has three hits today, Criscola’s been playing, did a really good job, Carter Bentley gets his first career home run… a nine-man lineup is huge, and we had that.”
Northeastern resumes play Tuesday evening as they take on Boston College in the Beanpot championship, the Huskies looking to make it three tournament wins in a row. First pitch is set for 6 p.m., with Max Schwartzberg, Daisy Roberts, and Amelia Ballingall on the call LIVE on WRBB Sports+.
Daisy Roberts is a hockey, basketball, and baseball broadcaster and writer for WRBB Sports. She has been covering Northeastern Athletics for five years. You can read her content here and follow her on X here.