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ABILENE, Texas – For the second straight weekend, the one-two combination of Aaron Civale and Mike Fitzgerald steered the Northeastern baseball team to a series-opening victory as the Huskies held off Abilene Christian, 3-2, on Friday afternoon.
 
Despite allowing seven hits, Civale navigated his way through eight innings of work, striking out six and walking none. The junior starter tossed two pitches south of 100 on the afternoon, surrendering a run during the second and another during the sixth.
 
Junior closer Mike Fitzgerald entered the game in the bottom of the ninth, sandwiching two strikeouts around a walk before forcing the Wildcats' Heath Beasley into a game-ending, 6-4 fielder's choice. Fitzgerald picked up his second save of the season.
 
Northeastern (3-2) hit three fewer hits than Abilene Christian (4-2), but capitalized on a pair of Wildcats errors during the top of the second. With Jake Farrell and Ryan Solomon on first and second base, respectively, Max Burt reached on an error, allowing the Huskies to load the bases. Two batters later, Mason Koppens appeared to have grounded out to third, but another ACU error allowed both Farrell and Solomon to score, leaving NU in front, 2-0.
 
With just one out in the inning, Charlie McConnell proceeded to fly out to left, scoring Burt on the sacrifice fly to put Northeastern ahead by three.
 
The Wildcats were quick to grab a run back off Civale during the bottom of the frame as Russell Crippen, Beasley, and David Ruot hit three consecutive singles to bring the Huskies' lead to 3-1 after two.
 
After Civale had stuck out Hunter Markwardt to open the sixth, he conceded a double to Aaron Draper, who scored two at-bats later on an RBI single by Braxton Wilks.
 
Northeastern stranded nine runners, while Abilene Christian left just three runners on base. Pat Madigan extended his hitting streak to a fifth game, while Keith Kelly also reached base safely for the fifth straight game courtesy of a sixth-inning single.
 
The Huskies will face the Wildcats twice on Saturday, Feb. 27 during a doubleheader. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 2 p.m. EST, while game two is anticipated to start at 5 p.m. EST.