"Just a tough college baseball game today."

Mike Glavine recaps a tight 8-7 victory over USF: #HowlinHuskies #NCAABaseball pic.twitter.com/WH5pML9gRO

— Northeastern Baseball (@GoNUbaseball) March 5, 2023

TAMPA, Fla. – In the series finale, the Northeastern Huskies (8-1) held off the South Florida Bulls (3-9), sweeping the series with a 8-7 victory on Sunday afternoon at the USF Baseball Stadium.
 
A pair of rookies stole the show with right-hander Aiven Cabral getting the win out of the bullpen, and redshirt-freshman Harrison Feinberg belting two homers and two doubles for four total RBIs.
 

• Northeastern struck first for the second straight game, tallying two runs in the top of the second inning on an RBI double by Harrison Feinberg and an RBI ground-out by Luke Beckstein.
• The Bulls answered back in the bottom of the frame after loading the bases and hitting a grand slam to lead 4-2.
• Cabral entered the game after the big inning for USF, and settled the game down going the next 5.2 innings, blanking the Bulls and allowing Northeastern to tie and retake the lead.
• Northeastern tied the game up in the fourth – with two outs, Mike Sirota drew a four pitch walk, and Tyler MacGregor hit him home with a deep homer to center field. A shut down bottom of the inning kept the game knotted at 4-4.
• Feinberg continued his big day with a leadoff solo shot to center in the sixth, retaking the lead for the Huskies, 5-4, and an RBI double to right-center, extending the lead to 6-4 in the seventh.
•  The Huskies' scoring run continued into the eighth when Alex Lane singled to center field, scoring Sirota for the seventh run of the game.
• After the Bulls answered back in the bottom of the eighth, Feinberg hit his second homer of the game to once again to extend the lead – Northeastern entered the bottom of the ninth up 8-5.
• The bullpen combo of Will Jones (0.1, 2 H, 1 ER), Nick Davis (1.1, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 K) saw the eighth and ninth innings for the Huskies. Davis entered the game up by just two runs, with the go-ahead run at the plate, and proceeded to strike out the final two batters of the game to preserve the lead.
• Down to their final out, the Bulls attempted to rally in the ninth with two runs, cutting the lead to one run, 8-7. Jake Gilgiotti entered the game needing one out, and struck out the last batter of the game to earn the save. It's his first save of the season, and just the second of his career. He last earned a save in the 2021 season.
• Cabral earned his first career win, finishing with only two hits allowed in his 5.2 innings of work. He posted a career-high eight strike outs. It's the most strike outs by a Northeastern pitcher in a single game this season.
• At 8-1, the Huskies are off to their best start in 26 years - the 1997 season is the last time the program started the season 8-1, as those Huskies won their first five games of the season.

 The Huskies will face their first midweek match up of the season, heading to Durham, N.C. to face Duke on Wednesday afternoon at 4pm on ACC Network Extra. They'll stay in North Carolina for the weekend to open conference play against Elon starting on Friday, March 10. All CAA games will stream of FloBaseball.

#HowlinHuskies