Box Score | Season Stats | Infographic

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. – Manufacturing the go-ahead run in the seventh inning on one of Max Burt's two sacrifice bunts, the Northeastern baseball team let College of Charleston score the tying and winning runs in the ninth and 12th inning, respectively, as the Huskies were upended by the Cougars, 3-2, during Sunday's series finale.
 
Although the outcome did not disturb the Huskies' position as the fourth-place team in the CAA standings, the defeat did tighten up the race for the final three spots in next week's conference tournament (May 25-28). Northeastern will head into the final week of the regular season leading a group of five teams (College of Charleston, James Madison, Delaware, and Towson) that are all in postseason contention and separated by just a game and a half.
 
Dustin Hunt was in line for his seventh victory of the season upon exiting the game in the seventh. Despite striking out only one of the 27 batters he faced, Hunt allowed just one run during six innings, surrendering a solo homer to Dupree Hart in the fifth.
 
Sophomore reliever Tyler Robinson protected Hunt's victory through the seventh and the eighth, tossing two hitless innings of relief and benefitting from a bases-loaded, 5-3 double play. Mike Fitzgerald retired the first batter he faced in the ninth but gave up an RBI double to Logan McRae that tied the game at 2-2, sending it into extras.

Seven different batters came away with a hit for Northeastern (27-24, 10-10 CAA), while Zach Perry was the only NU player to swing multiple hits. Cam Walsh singled and scored in the first inning on Perry's RBI base knock up the middle, taking an extra base on an error by Charleston left fielder Bradley Dixon.
 
After Hart's homer knotted the game up at 1-1, the Huskies were content to play small ball to craft a run in the seventh. Trailing in the count, 0-2, Jake Farrell patiently let four balls sail by him to earn a leadoff walk. Josh Treff proceeded to execute the first of two sacrifice bunts for Northeastern, and after a single by Charlie McConnell, Burt delivered the second bunt that scored Farrell to give NU a 2-1 edge.
 
Mason Koppens and David Hopkins combined to register a pair of two-out singles in the top of the 10th, but Walsh pivoted through a 1-2 pitch that abruptly ended the Northeastern rally.
 
With Ryan Brown aboard after a leadoff walk in the bottom of the 11th, College of Charleston (27-23-1, 10-11 CAA) took a page out of the Huskies' book by bunting Brown over to second and moving him to third on a 6-3 groundout. Upon intentionally walking Hart, NU head coach Mike Glavine swapped Fitzgerald for Andrew Misiaszek, who managed to get Tommy Richter to line out to left on the first pitch he threw.
 
Northeastern had a chance to take the lead in the top of the 12th with the bases loaded, but Hopkins lined into a bad-luck, unassisted double play that stranded the go-ahead run at third. The Cougars responded with a bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the frame and scored the winning run on an RBI single by Brown.
 
The Huskies will return to Friedman Diamond to host Towson in the first of three at Friedman Diamond on Thursday, May 19. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.