Box Score | Season Stats

BROOKLINE, Mass. – Despite first baseman Rob Fonseca hitting a career-best three doubles in a non-conference game against Rhode Island, the Northeastern baseball team struggled to keep the Rams off the bases on Tuesday as the Huskies were defeated, 18-8, at Friedman Diamond.
 
Fonseca legged out three extra-base hits in a single game for the first time during his career while raising his season batting average by 24 percentage points to .274. The redshirt-junior from Madison, New Jersey, is currently third on the team in extra-base hits with eight on the season and is tied with teammate Joey Scambia with 16 RBIs this year.
 
Right fielder Pat Madigan increased his reached-base streak to a team-high 21 straight games on Tuesday by going two-for-three. Madigan picked up his 15th RBI of the season on a double that scored Fonseca in the bottom of the fourth inning and he later scored on a single by Scambia, who ended the game going two-for-four at the dish.
 
Sophomore Jimmy Hand recorded an RBI on a sacrifice fly that scored Nolan Lang in the fourth inning as Northeastern (10-15, 3-3 CAA) cut the Rams' lead to 7-3. Michael Foster went one-for-five with a run scored, while Keith Kelly and Cam Hanley each netted a base-hit on the afternoon.
 
Nate Borges' first start of 2015 lasted 3.1 innings as Rhode Island (6-10-1, 1-2 Atlantic 10) did the sophomore hurler in for six runs, five earned, on six hits. Relievers Nick Cubarney and Tyler Robinson each conceded five earned runs apiece to the Rams in 2.2 and 2.0 innings of work, respectively, while Zach Perry made his first collegiate appearance in the ninth, surrendering two runs on one hit.
 
URI second baseman Chris Hess blasted two triples, a double, and collected five RBIs as part of a four-for-four day in the batter's box. Nine different Rams batters recorded at least one hit in the game, helping Rhode Island post 18 runs on 16 total cracks of the bat. Third baseman Mike Corin drove in three runs and scored twice, going two-for-four.
 
Although Borges handled the Rams well in the top of the first inning, defensive errors by the Huskies gave URI extra base runners in the second. Hess followed a five-pitch walk to Connor Foreman with an RBI double down the left-field line, and he would later put Rhode Island in front, 2-0, on a successful double steal try.
 
Northeastern had difficulty waking up its bats against URI starter Ben Wessel, who retired seven straight NU hitters between the first and third innings. Rhode Island would rally in the top of the fourth and take a 4-0 lead on an RBI double by Foreman and an RBI single by Martin Taveras before Ryan Olmo hit a three-run home run that sent the Rams ahead, 7-0.
 
The Huskies would respond during the home half of the frame as Fonseca and Madigan belted back-to-back doubles that made the score, 7-1. Madigan moved over to third base after a wild pitch, scoring on a base-hit by Scambia, and Hand lifted a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Lang from third to slash Rhode Island's lead to 7-3 after four innings.
 
A series of bases-loaded hits in the top of the sixth awarded URI a larger mid-game advantage as Powell ripped an RBI single to center field two batters before Corin hit a bases-clearing, two-RBI triple. Following a quiet NU half of the sixth, the Rams tacked on two more runs in the top of the seventh to take a 13-3 lead.
 
Trailing by double digits, Huskies head coach Mike Glavine made a handful of lineup changes to put his team in a better position to reduce the URI lead as much as possible. Matt Cook was hit by a pitch in the eighth inning, reaching base for the third time this year, but Hanley lined into an inning-ending 4-3 double play that diminished hopes of recreating another walk-off win.
 
After Rhode Island had built an 18-3 edge in the top of the ninth, the Huskies prolonged the game by capitalizing on two defensive errors by the Rams. Fonseca lifted Northeastern's spirits by unleashing his third double of the day down the right-field line that made the score a 10-run ball game, but the first baseman was thrown out from right field trying to advance to third for a triple.
 
NU will head to Smithfield, Rhode Island, on Wednesday, April 1, for a non-conference game against Bryant beginning at 3 p.m. The Huskies will then travel to Elon this weekend for a three-game CAA series starting Friday, April 3, at 6 p.m.