EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. – In game three of their weekend series, the Northeastern Huskies (32-13, 14-7 CAA) bounced back to defeat the North Carolina A&T Aggies (23-24, 7-14 CAA) by a score of 13-3 on Saturday afternoon at World War Memorial Stadium.
Starting pitcher
Wyatt Scotti broke a program record that has stood since 1955, earning his 25
th career win as he held the Aggies off the scoreboard through five innings and allowed just one earned run in the sixth.
Offensively, the Huskies got two home runs out of
Tyler MacGregor, totaling a game-high five RBIs. Other Huskies with multi-hit days were
Luke Beckstein (2-for-5, 2 RBI),
Gregory Bozzo (2-for-4, 1R), and
Cam Maldonado (2-for-3, 2B, RBI).
- Northeastern started off strong with a crooked number in the opening frame. After a lead off walk to Luke Beckstein, a one-out two-run homer by Tyler MacGregor gave the Huskies an early 2-0 lead.
- After the next batter, Alex Lane, reached on a walk, he was followed by designated hitter Matt Brinker, who sent a 2-1 count over the left field wall to extend the lead to 4-0.
- The Huskies added on two more in the second, on an RBI ground out by Luke Beckstein, scoring Jack Goodman from third, and a steal of second base by Mike Sirota that allowed Cam Maldonado to take off from third, scoring the sixth run of the game.
- In the fourth it was Alex Lane doubling to left-center, scoring Sirota and Maldonado for the 8-0 lead.
- Cam Maldonado and Luke Beckstein extended the lead in the fifth with back-to-back RBI singles scoring Gregory Bozzo and Chris Walsh, pushing the lead to 10.
- Starting pitcher Wyatt Scotti had a no-hit bid broken up in the fifth inning and a shutout spoiled in the sixth inning but finished strong with just one earned run allowed on five hits, striking out a season-high seven batters.
- The Aggies got on the scoreboard with two runs, one earned, in the bottom of the sixth inning. They added another in the eighth on a sac-fly to cut the NU lead down to seven.
- In the top of the ninth, MacGregor hit his second home run of the day, and his fourth of the weekend, to score Beckstein and Sirota for the 13-3 lead.
- Four pitchers helped close the game in the seventh through ninth innings – Aiven Cabral worked a near-perfect inning, allowing just one hit but getting a ground ball for a double play to end the seventh.
- James Quinlivan worked in the eighth and ninth innings, recording three outs without allowing a base runner.
- Joseph Hauser (0.1, 2H, 1R) and James Morice (0.2, 0H, 0R, 1K) also made late appearances in the contest.
- The win snapped a three-game road losing streak for the Huskies, as they improved to 18-1 when scoring 10 or more runs in a game.
- The previous program record for career wins was originally set in 1955 by Donald Eason with 24 wins. No other Husky had reached that mark until Jordan Thomson tied that record in 2004. Scotti became the third Husky to the 24-win mark last weekend with a win over Elon.
The Huskies return home to Friedman Diamond for a home contest on Tuesday, May 7
th with the UConn Huskies at 1 p.m. on FloBaseball and NESN+. They follow that up with a trip to the College of Charleston for a weekend series beginning next Friday, May 10
th.
