BROOKLINE, Mass. – In a Friday afternoon double header, the Northeastern Huskies (24-9, 9-2 CAA) swept the Hofstra Pride (12-23, 3-8 CAA), winning both games at Friedman Diamond by scores of 6-1 in game one, and 9-0 in game two.
The Husky offense got off to a slow start in game one, but a strong one-run performance by the defense kept NU in it, and three runs in the fourth and eighth innings turned into a game one victory. The Huskies led wire to wire in game two, with a pair of homers in the opening inning. Northeastern's starting pitching duo of
Will Jones and
Aiven Cabral allowed just one run on nine hits, no walks, and 15 total strikeouts, while shortstop
Jack Goodman tallied a home run in each of the two games. Game two's shutout performance from the defense set a new program record with the team's eighth shutout of the year.
GAME ONE – Northeastern 6, Hofstra 1
- Hofstra was able to get on the scoreboard first, resulting from a double and an RBI single in the second inning, to lead 1-0.
- The Huskies answered back in the fourth inning with a trio of their own hits – both Cam Maldonado and Harrison Feinberg reached on infield singles with no outs to start the inning off, and Jack Goodman brought them both home on a line drive homer to left field for the 3-1 lead.
- Starting pitcher Will Jones put together six strong innings, with just the one run in the second against him on four hits and no walks. He struck out seven Hofstra batters in his outing before handing the ball over to Charlie Walker in the seventh.
- Walker faced early trouble with three hits in his first inning of work, but got out of trouble with a fly out double play. Walker cruised through the eighth and ninth with two perfect innings for his fourth save of the season. He held Hofstra scoreless on three hits, no walks, and a strikeout.
- Northeastern pitching walked zero batters in game one, the seventh no-walk game of the season.
- It was NU's first conference win of the season when letting up the first run of the game (2-6 overall).
GAME TWO – Northeastern 9, Hofstra 0
- Northeastern struck in the first inning with four runs, highlighted by a two-run home run from Harrison Feinberg and a two-run blast from Matt Brinker to take an early 4-0 lead.
- Feinberg's homer scored Doyle, who reached on an infield single to lead off the game, and Brinker's homer, his first of the season, scored Jack Goodman after he reached on a walk.
- After three scoreless innings, the Huskies added four more runs in the fifth inning – after a single to short by Carmelo Musacchia, he was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Ryan Gerety. Musacchia would score on a Doyle RBI single to make it 5-0.
- With Doyle on second after a stolen base, and Feinberg on first with a walk, Goodman hammered his second homer of the day, first of game two, over the left field wall for the 8-0 lead.
- Feinberg added an RBI single in the seventh inning to make it 9-0, capping the Huskies' scoring.
- Starting pitcher Aiven Cabral was dominant, throwing 6.0 scoreless innings while allowing just five hits with no walks and eight strikeouts to earn his fifth win of the season (5-2). His eight strikeouts tied his career high.
- The Husky bullpen was equally effective as Brett Dunham, Jack Beauchesne, and Ryan Griffin combined to pitch the final three innings, allowing no hits and striking out four batters.
- The shutout was Northeastern's eighth of the season, which leads the nation and sets a new program record for single-season shutouts.
- Pitching coach Kevin Cobb was also in charge of the staff in 2016 and 2023, the last two seasons that the Huskies reached the old program record of seven shutouts.
- Doyle and Feinberg led the way in game two, each with a pair of hits. Feinberg led the team in RBIs in game two, tied with Goodman with three runs driven in.
- The Huskies improve to 10-1 at Friedman Diamond this season, and are now a CAA-leading 9-2 in league play.
The series is scheduled to wrap up Sunday, April 13th at Friedman Diamond. That game can be seen on FloCollege at 1 p.m.
