Final Boxscore
JACKSONVILLE -- Coming off the euphoria of scoring 6 runs against the Boston Red Sox just 24 hours earlier, Northeastern again had their hitting shoes on mounting a 12-hit attack in their 9-1 victory over the Ospreys on Friday night at Harmon Stadium.
The visiting Huskies (1-3) broke open a tight 2-1 game in the top of the seventh with four unearned runs before comfortably earning their season's first victory.
A pair of Friday night starters were hooked up in a pitchers battle until the fateful decisive seventh inning. Northeastern's Mike Fitzgerald earned the win for the Huskies by giving up one lone run in six innings of work.
UNF starter
Austin Drury saw a couple of streaks go by the wayside early in the contest. After not giving up a walk in his six innings of work in his season opening victory over Radford, coupled with a scoreless streak that reached 16 innings dating back to last year, saw both streaks fall after only two batters.
Drury walked Huskies leadoff batter Mason Koppens and then was rudely greeted with a homerun off the bat of Scott Holzwasser giving Northeastern a 2-0 lead.
Drury, who scattered eight hits, gave way to Matt Naylor in the 7th innings after giving up an infield single to David Hopkins, two Osprey errors on Northeastern bunt attempts then loaded the bases. Cam Hanley drove a stake into Osprey hopes for a victory with a ground ball down the first base line that rolled all the way to the fence for a bases clearing triple.
Naylor struck out the first batter he faced but Pat Madigan then drove home Hanley with a two-out single for the fourth run in the pivotal seventh frame.
The Ospreys would tally their only run on the night in the third inning when
Yahir Gurrola drove in Wes Weeks with a long double to right center. Weeks had reached base earlier in the inning after being hit by a pitch.
North Florida had numerous chances to score during the middle innings but couldn't come up with some timely hits. UNF left a pair of runners stranded in the four consecutive innings, from the fourth to seventh.
The visitors from the Boston area iced the contest with a solo run in the 8th on Holzwasser's sacrifice fly before netting a pair of ninth inning runs, thanks to a pinch hit blast into the woods behind the right field fence from Jimmy Hand.
Gurrola and
Christian Diaz combined for 5 of the 7 UNF hits in the game with Gurrola punching out a pair of singles to go with his double.
The loss drops the Ospreys to 2-3 on the season but they have a chance to get back on the winning side with a doubleheader scheduled on Saturday.
The first game is scheduled for 1:00 PM with Andrew Misiaszek (0-1) on the bump for Northeastern while Osprey head coach
Smoke Laval will wait to make a game time decision for the UNF starter. Laval has announced that Brad Depperman (0-0) will get the call to start game 2 for the Ospreys and he will be opposed by the Huskie's Tom Githens (0-0).
