TAMPA, Fla. – In the opening game of their weekend series, the Northeastern Huskies (6-1) ran away with the game in the sixth and seventh innings, defeating the South Florida Bulls (3-7) by a score of 15-3 in seven innings at the USF Baseball Stadium.
A sixth-run top of the sixth inning was provided by home runs by
Alex Lane (4) and
Jimmy Sullivan (3), with Lane adding another in the seventh to force the game to end due to the American Athletic Conference (AAC) run rule in the bottom of the seventh.
- USF got on the board first with a one-out solo shot to center field to take a quick 1-0 lead.
- The Huskies responded in the very next frame, loading the bases with two outs and getting a four-pitch walk drawn by Luke Beckstein to bring in the third base runner, Cam Maldonado, to tie the game 1-1.
- NU once again loaded the bases in the top of the fourth, and this time were able to capitalize for the lead – after a walk to Jimmy Sullivan, Spenser Smith was hit by a pitch and Beckstein loaded the bags with a walk.
- With runners on all bases Mike Sirota hit an RBI single to center, scoring Sullivan and Smith from scoring position to take the lead. Following him was Tyler MacGregor who cleared the rest with an RBI double, giving Northeastern a 5-1 lead.
- USF whittled away at the lead tallying one in the fourth and one in the fifth to cut the lead down to three.
- Northeastern exploded for six runs in the top of the sixth inning, capitalized by two multi-run homers. The trouble started when Smith reached on a leadoff walk, and was advanced into scoring position by a sacrifice bunt from Gregory Bozzo. After Smith stole third, he was knocked in by Beckstein, his second RBI of the game, to lead 6-3.
- Sirota drew a walk with one out, Alex Lane hit a three-run shot over the left-center field wall, his third of the season, to give the Huskies a 9-3 lead.
- After a Danny Crossen single and steal, Jimmy Sullivan cleared the bases with his third homer of the season, over the center field wall, to give Northeastern an 11-3 lead.
- The Huskies forced a seven-inning finish when they went up by over 10 runs in the top of the inning – a single by Beckstein and a walk to Sirota set up a Tyler MacGregor RBI double, his second of the evening, to score Beckstein from second, making it 12-3.
- Lane notched his second homer of the night in the top of the seventh, scoring MacGregor and Sirota, hitting one to the opposite field, clearing the right-center field wall to lead 15-3.
- Jack Beauchesne took the mound in the bottom of the frame, induced two ground outs, and after a two-out double, struck out the final out of the contest.
- Wyatt Scotti (3-0) worked 5.0 innings in his third straight start, allowing three runs on eight hits, but allowing no walks. He tallied two punch-outs in the contest.
- Taking over for Scotti was Charlie Walker, who continued his impressive rookie season striking out the first two batters swinging on his way to a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth.
- The Huskies are now on a five-game winning streak dating all the way back to their first series of the season, as they picked up the Sunday win against UNC Greensboro.
- It's the second time this season the Huskies have won by 10 or more runs – the first of which was the 2023 season opener against UNCG.
Game two, originally scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, has been moved up to 12 p.m. – that game will stream on ESPN+.
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