Northeastern Edges UNCW 7-5 In 10 Innings To Force Winner-Take-All Championship Game
Rob Washburn
Box Score |
Champ Central | Highlights | Photo Gallery
WILMINGTON, N.C. (May 29, 2021) – Top-seeded Northeastern scored three times in the 10
th inning and got past #2 UNCW, 7-5, on Saturday evening to force a winner-take-all rematch for the CAA Baseball Championship.
The Huskies (35-10) and Seahawks (32-21) will meet for the third time in three days at 1 p.m. on Sunday with the victor earning the conference title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
With the game tied at 4-4 in the 10
th, Northeastern’s Jeff Costello led off with a double and walks to Max Viera and Jared Dupere loaded the bases. Danny Crossen’s sacrifice fly brought home Viera and a pair of UNCW errors on the play allowed Dupere to score. Ben Malgeri followed with an RBI single up the middle to give NU a 7-4 advantage.
The Seahawks threatened in the bottom of the 10
th, putting its first two runners on and cutting the gap to two on Dillon Lifrieri’s RBI single. However, Huskies’ reliever David Stiehl was able to escape the jam to earn his second save.
Malgeri led Northeastern offensively, going 3-for-5 with a pair of homers and three RBI’s, while Scott Holzwasser was 2-for-5 with a homer and two runs scored.
Lifrieri finished 3-for-5 with three RBI’s for UNCW and Taber Mongero was 3-for-4 with a run scored.
Northeastern jumped out to a three-run lead after four innings courtesy of three solo homers. Holzwasser opened the second with his fifth homer of the year to left, and two batters later, Malgeri added a long ball of his own to put the Huskies on top, 2-0.
Malgeri struck again in the fourth, launching a shot to left-center with two outs to put the Huskies up by three.
NU tacked on another run in the fifth. Teddy Beaudet reached on a leadoff bunt, advanced to third on a sacrifice and a groundout, and came home on Viera’s infield single.
After being held to four hits over the first six innings by NU starting pitcher Wyatt Scotti, UNCW opened the seventh with three straight singles. Cole Weiss and Lifrieri were the first to reach and Noah Bridges followed with a RBI base hit up the middle. Jac Croom’s sacrifice fly plated Lifrieri to cut the deficit to 4-2.
The Seahawks continued their comeback in the eighth. After loading the bases with two outs, Lifrieri delivered a game-tying, two-run single to right following an 11-pitch at-bat.