Northeastern Advances To CAA Baseball Championship Game With 5-1 Victory Over Charleston
Rob Washburn
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WILMINGTON, N.C. (May 29, 2021) – Behind an outstanding performance from freshman pitcher Sebastian Keane and a two-run homer from CAA Player of the Year Jared Dupere, top-seeded Northeastern advanced to the title game of the CAA Baseball Championship with a 5-1 victory over #4 Charleston on Saturday afternoon at UNCW’s Brooks Field.
The Huskies (34-10), who reached the finals for the second time in three years, will get a rematch against #2 UNCW at 5 p.m. this evening and would need to beat the Seahawks twice to claim their first conference title. Charleston, which won a pair of elimination games on Friday, had its year come to an end with a 27-25 mark.
Keane surrendered just four hits and one run over 7.0 innings while striking out six to improve his record to 6-1. Brian Rodriguez threw the final two frames for the Huskies and gave up one hit.
Neither team scored over the first five innings, which were dominated by the two starting pitchers. Charleston freshman William Privette limited the Huskies to one hit and fanned four during the stretch, while Keane held the Cougars to a pair of hits and struck out five.
However, both teams struck in the sixth courtesy of big hits from their first-team all-conference standouts. In the top of the frame, NU’s Max Viera lined a one-out triple into the right-field bullpen and Dupere followed with a two-run shot to dead center. It was Dupere’s third homer of the tournament and his 20
th of the season, tying a program record.
In the bottom of the sixth, Cougars’ outfielder Harrison Hawkins, the league leader in RBI’s, smacked a two-out double off the fence in left that allowed Trotter Harlan to race around from first and trim the deficit to 2-1.
Northeastern added some insurance in the eighth. Dupere reached on an infield single and the Huskies got back-to-back RBI doubles from Scott Holzwasser and Danny Crossen to take a 4-1 lead. A throwing error after Ben Malgeri’s infield single brought in Crossen with the final run.
Malgeri finished 3-for-4, while Dupere was 2-for-4 and scored twice to pace the Huskies’ offense.
Third baseman Cam Dean was the only Charleston player with multiple hits, going 2-for-3.