Ryan Maguire
CAMBRIDGE MASS- After a seven run first inning, Northeastern appeared well on its away to securing a midweek non conference win over Harvard and sweeping the brief two game season series between the two.
Three hours later, that was far from the case.
Harvard clawed away at the deficit before a ten run seventh inning catapulted them past the Huskies to a 16-13 win in a wild game that saw the two teams combine to use 34 players, issue 14 walks, ten wild pitches, and hit five batters. The game’s 29 combined runs came on just 22 hits.
Crimson senior Adam Cole struggled in the first, walking four while allowing seven runs. Junior Brendan Stokes had an RBI double, while sophomore Ryan Maguire delivered the big blow of the inning with his first career grand slam, which cleared the left field fence with the help of the swirling wind at O’Donnell Field.
With sophomore Devin Barry on first, freshman Ryan Kemp lofted his first collegiate home run to right to give NU a 9-2 lead in the third.
Harvard (13-28, 10-10) trailed 9-4 entering the seventh but rallied back against seniors Tyler Thornton, Aaron Greenblatt and freshman Andrew Leenhouts. Crimson senior Matt Rodgers had a pair of doubles in the inning, while sophomore Dillon O’Neill drove home a pair with a long triple to the left field gap.
Northeastern (22-17, 8-6) added four in the top of the eighth to make it 14-13, but Harvard pushed the score to 16-13 in the bottom half of the inning.
“It was a typical midweek college game where both teams are going to score a lot of runs because you’re tired from five games in a row, your pitching staff is worked to its bone,” said Northeastern head coach Neil McPhee.
Sophomore Brandon McNelis started his first collegiate game for the Huskies, going four innings while allowing three runs on four hits with five walks and four strikeouts. Cole only recorded one out, but was bailed out by sophomore Anthony Nutter (1-3, 12.86), who threw six and a third innings to pick up the win. After playing the first eight innings in right field, senior Tom Stack-Babich switched to the mound and struck out the side in the ninth for his second save of the season. Thornton (1-1, 20.25) was tagged with the loss for NU.
Northeastern will resume CAA play this weekend when they travel to first place George Mason for a three game series.
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