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BROOKLINE, Mass. – With seven batters combining to swing its nine hits, the Northeastern baseball team motored past Hartford, 3-1, on Monday afternoon during its 2018 home opener at Friedman Diamond.
 
Jake Farrell broke the two teams' scoreless tie during the bottom of the fourth inning, bouncing a solo homer off the right field bleachers to lift Northeastern (10-5) to the one-run, midgame advantage. Farrell's round-trip ball marked the NU first baseman's third home run of the season and first since Feb. 24 against Missouri.
 
The Huskies tripled their lead to 3-0 against Hartford (2-13) during the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring two unearned runs off a pair of bases-loaded walks.
 
Mason Koppens opened the NU fifth inning with a leadoff single off the Hawks' starting pitcher, James Judenis, and moved into scoring position on Charlie McConnell's shallow fly to left field that deflected off the reaching glove of Chris Sullivan, dropping for an error. Cam Walsh followed McConnell by beating a well-executed sacrifice bunt to the bag at first, loading the bases with nobody out while sending the Hawks to the bullpen.
 
With Tyler Coppo on the mound, Scott Holzwasser drew a five-pitch walk to up Northeastern's lead to 2-0, three batters before Ryan Solomon worked an eight-pitch walk with two outs, extending the NU edge to 3-0.
 
Northeastern had missed an opportunity to strike first during the bottom of the first inning. Walsh had reached safely on Zachary Ardito's errant throw from shortstop, but was thrown out at the plate on Holzwasser's double that had landed over the head of Nick Campana in center field.
 
Sean Mellen turned in six shutout innings for the Huskies to improve to 5-0 during his first five starts of the 2018 season. The sophomore lefty struck out five while walking one and scattering five hits.
 
Tyler Brown surrendered a one-out double to Drew Holtgrieve during the top of the seventh, which Hartford manufactured into a run courtesy of a wild pitch and an RBI groundout by Trevor Thompson.

Kyle Murphy collected three outs from the four ninth-inning batters he faced en route to earning his third save of the season. 
 
UP NEXT
 
Northeastern will take on Boston College at the Eagles' new Brighton Field on Tuesday, March 20, at 3 p.m. The Huskies will continue on to Lubbock, Texas, where NU will oppose No. 10 Texas Tech during a four-game weekend series.