Huntington News

Issue date: 5/23/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: News Staff Photo/Eric Baumann

After losing two out of three games to the Hofstra Pride May 11-13 (a 6-4 win, then losses 5-2 and 3-2), the situation became clear-cut for the Northeastern baseball team. At 1.5 games out of the final Colonial Athletic Association's (CAA) playoff position, they'd have to win big against the Rams during the weekend and hope for outside help to make the postseason.

"Everyone was pretty calm, no one was panicking really," junior pitcher and ace Kris Dabrowiecki said. "We knew [at Hofstra] what our objective was and we just wanted to go out there and do what we always do, try to win games."

Dabrowiecki did all he could to win on Thursday, pitching a complete game and allowing just two runs on eight hits. But Virginia Commonwealth (VCU) starter Cody Eppley (six innings, one run, four hits, nine strikeouts) and a pair of relievers shackled the potent Husky offense long enough to record a 2-1 victory at Friedman Diamond in Brookline.

Combined with a 5-1 Georgia State win against Towson on Friday, the loss eliminated Northeastern from playoff contention.

"I felt pretty good out there," Dabrowiecki said. "I was hitting my spots and my slider and changeup were working pretty well. ... I just wanted to keep the team in the game. I felt good, just disappointed, that's all."

The two teams finished the series on a misty, cloudy Saturday at Friedman. The seven-inning first game featured a sparkling showing from sophomore pitcher Jeff Thomson, who recorded a two-hit shutout of the Rams, 4-0, on Senior Day.

Northeastern jumped to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice grounder from junior first baseman Josh Porter and a two-run single up the middle from freshman second baseman Dave Fisher. Thomson ran the show from there, allowing just two base hits (one in the third, the other in the seventh). Senior third baseman Garrett Chin knocked in the final NU run with a sacrifice fly to left field in the sixth.

In the second game, the Huskies charged back from a 4-1 deficit to score one run each in the seventh, eighth and ninth to force the game into extra innings. Senior designated hitter Dan Milano started the rally with a RBI single in the seventh and finished it with a game-tying home run off the scoreboard, his 13th of the year, to send the game into the 10th.

"The guys from the bench had been bothering me to get another one out," Milano said. "In the three years previously, I've had three home runs as a freshman, six as a sophomore and nine as a junior, and they wanted me to get one more and get out of that streak I had going. It was a good feeling to get one in my last at bat. I was hoping it wasn't gonna be my last at-bat, but it just didn't work out that way."

Continued...

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