Box Score | Season Stats | Fonseca's Walk-off Homer

BROOKLINE, Mass. – Trailing No. 15 College of Charleston, 4-2, in the bottom of the 10th inning, first baseman Rob Fonseca cracked a game-winning, three-run home run down the left-field line as the Northeastern baseball team walked off as 5-4 winners against the Cougars on Thursday afternoon.
 
With the victory, the Huskies are now guaranteed to finish at least third in the final CAA standings, a feat that NU will achieve for the first time this year since its inaugural season in the conference in 2006. Thursday's win is also Northeastern's first against a team ranked in the NCBWA poll since April 5, 2008, when the Huskies defeated No. 30 UNCW, 6-4, during the first game of a CAA doubleheader.
 
Senior Nick Berger made the final home pitching appearance of his career in front of the NU fans at Friedman Diamond, tossing six scoreless innings and holding the Cougars, who entered the day fourth in Division I in batting average (.319), to just three hits. Berger's six strikeouts were also enough to move the NU veteran into sole possession of third place on the Huskies' all-time strikeout list (243 career strikeouts), passing Jordan Thomson (241).
 
Right fielder Pat Madigan churned out two doubles during three at-bats, bringing his two-bag total this season to 11. Cam Hanley provided Northeastern (24-26, 14-8 CAA) with its first hit of the day in the fourth inning, powering his third homer of the season to the right-field bleachers.
 
Fonseca's three-run blast in the bottom of the 10th was the NU slugger's 13th of the year and eighth during his last nine games. The redshirt-junior from Madison, New Jersey, tacked on three RBIs with one swing, ending the game with 37 on the year.
 
Sophomore Dustin Hunt made his first bullpen outing of the season when he replaced Berger at the start of the seventh inning, allowing two runs on two hits and striking out five. Despite conceding two runs on three runs during the top of the 10th, sophomore Aaron Civale persevered, picking up his team-leading sixth win of the season with the help of Fonseca's homer.
 
Nathan Helvey retired seven straight batters and helped College of Charleston (39-11, 19-3 CAA) limit Northeastern to just one run during the first six innings of the game. Bradley Jones's two-run homer gave the Cougars a 2-1 lead in the top of the seventh as the Charleston left fielder finished the day going three-for-four. Catcher Erven Roper scored twice and went two-for-three.
 
Berger struck out three of the first four batters he faced to open the game, fanning Ryan Brown and Tommy Richter, back-to-back, to open the top of the first. Nick Pappas' knock through the gap in left center hopped over the outfield wall in the top of the second, but Madigan chased down a foul ball in right field before Fonseca and Berger worked a 3-1 infield putout.
 
NU managed to put two runners on base without a hit in the bottom of the third after Gabe Levanti walked and Michael Foster was hit by a 1-1 pitch. The Huskies, however, would not be able to bring a run acorss the plate until the bottom of the fourth, when Hanley smacked a solo shot off the press box in right field, awarding Northeastern a 1-0 advantage.
 
Charleston responded to the early deficit by placing runners at first and second following Roper's hit-by-pitch and Jones' single. Northeastern's inability to turn a double play allowed the Cougars to put runners on the corners, but Foster snagged a line drive in center to keep Charleston off the scoreboard after five full innings.
 
Hunt began his relief outing in the seventh by ringing up Pappas on strikes, but the Cougars claimed a 2-1 lead off the sophomore courtesy of a two-out homer by Jones.
 
Madigan answered back for NU with a lead-off double during the home half of the frame before the Huskies loaded the bases with the help of a single by Nolan Lang. During the next at-bat, Maxwell Burt appeared to have grounded into an inning-ending, 4-3 double play, but the umpire ruled that the Charleston second baseman did not touch the bag at second, allowing Madigan to score the tying run from third.
 
Hunt would end up striking out four straight Cougars batters, including three during the eighth, before Civale entered the game in the 10th. With a runner on first, Josh Treff fielded a weak dribbler short of the pitcher's mound but threw a bouncing ball into the outfield, allowing Charleston to take a 3-2 lead on the error. The Cougars soon built a 4-2 edge on an RBI single by Rowland.
 
With one out in the bottom of the 10th, Foster singled to the deepest part of the infield at shortstop before Kelly singled through a hole in the right side. After taking a first-pitch ball, Fonseca crushed a 1-0 pitch down the left-field line, lifting the Huskies to a dramatic, 5-4, walk-off victory against the first-place Cougars.
 
Northeastern will welcome No. 15 College of Charleston back to Friedman Diamond on Friday, May 15, at 3 p.m. James Mulry (3-6, 5.16 ERA) will start against the Cougars' Taylor Clarke (11-1, 1.46 ERA).