BOSTON – With less than two weeks remaining of the regular season, Northeastern looks ahead to one of its last remaining weekday games as the Huskies (25-20, 9-11 CAA) head to West Hartford, Conn., for a regional battle with the Hartford Hawks.
The Huskies are coming off a 2-3 week that included a Beanpot championship against UMass and an upset win over UNCW in Wilmington, in which
Nick Berger tossed a complete game, two-hit shutout of the Seahawks dynamic offense.
Northeastern is 7-2 so far this season against opponents from New England, a marked improvement from their 3-8 record a year ago against the same cast of opponents. Helping out with that cause has been NU's pitching staff, and freshman
Nick Cubarney will look to keep that going on Tuesday. Cubarney will be making his seventh start and eighth appearance of the year. He has compiled a 3.98 ERA in 31.2 innings of work with a 3-4 record over that span.
At the plate, a couple of Huskies have been on hot streaks, including
Aaron Barbosa and
Rob Fonseca. Barbosa batted .522 (12-for-23) over the five games last week in the leadoff position, scoring three runs. The junior stole his 24th base of the season on Sunday, giving him the all-time Northeastern record for career steals with 67. Fonseca started his week off with a dynamite shot over the Green Monster at Fenway Park in the Beanpot finals against UMass. Fonseca finished the week going 7-for-19 (.368) with four runs and four RBI, both tops on the team over the seven-day span.
Hartford comes into Tuesday with a 14-31 record, having won 11 of 24 America East contests. The Hawks are led by Ryan Lukach and Brady Sheetz, both of whom are batting above .280. Lukach leads the team with three home runs and has 20 RBI this season. His 12 doubles are tied with Sheetz, who has a team-high 26 runs and has brought 16 runs across. On the mound, Sam McKay is projected to start for UH. McKay owns a 3-2 record this year with a 6.67 ERA in 29.2 innings pitched. He's only issued four walks and has punched out 25 batters so far.
The Huskies and Hawks have met 74 times previously, the last of which came in 2005. Northeastern is on an eight-game win streak against Hartford, and is 16-4 in its last 20 of the series.
