In a three-game weekend that saw two one-run wins and a blowout, the Boston University club baseball team took two of three, wrapping up its second NECBA North Division regular season title in as many years.
After leading Emerson College, 5-0, through five innings on the arm of Brandon Simes Friday afternoon, the Terriers let up two unearned runs before Quinn Duffy came on in relief and registered the last out of the sixth frame. BU held on, barely, for a 5-4 win after allowing two more Emerson runs to cross the plate in the seventh.
The Terriers got on the board in the first when a Craig O’Connell (2-for-3, 3 RBI on the day) single brought Mike Carozza home from second. In the bottom of the third, Pete Lawn (2-for-4, 2 RBI) scored when Brad Gerbus reached first on an Emerson error.
BU found three more runs in the fifth – off an O’Connell double that knocked in a pair and an RBI single off the bat of Nando Trindade.
But though the Terriers pulled out a win Friday, they wouldn’t be so lucky in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader with The College of the Holy Cross.
The Terriers again tallied the first blow, as Lawn (3-for-4) singled and crossed the plate a few batters later on a two-out Trindade hit in the bottom of the first. But the sixth inning saw a pair of runs for both squads, and BU headed into the seventh with the 3-2 lead behind starter Jon Koonin.
But in the top of the inning, Holy Cross pulled ahead, 4-3 – a score that would stick.
And though Koonin tossed a complete game – giving up seven hits, three walks and four runs (one unearned) – the hurler also recorded his first loss in two seasons, as the Terriers stranded 11 en route to just their second loss of the season.
But the Terrier bats heated up again in the rain-shortened Game 2, as the Terriers more than doubled their weekend run total in a five-inning, 10-4 romp of the Crusaders.
Seven of BU’s nine starters contributed at the plate, led by Trindade (3-for-3, 2 RBI) and Matt Langford (2-for-3, 2 RBI). BU’s Lawn slugged the only home run of the weekend, going 1-for-3 in Saturday’s late game. Mike Walker made his mark as well, knocking in two and going 1-for-2 on the game.
Jeff Border got the nod to start for the Terriers, giving up three runs in four innings before Randy Forrester took the hill in the fifth to finish the game. BU, on the other hand, scored five in the first, adding four more its next time up and capping the weekend off with a final score in the fourth.
The Terriers outscored their opponents, 18-12, and continued to rip through competition.
With the win, BU clinched the North Division and will face Holy Cross again this weekend in a postseason NECBA semifinal rematch.