The USM baseball team flexed their offensive muscles last week and picked up three non-conference wins before heading into the final stretch of conference play.
Led by juniors Anthony D’Alfonso (Westbrook) and Chris Burleson (Portland), the Huskies slugged their way to come-from-behind wins against Thomas and Endicott and coasted by Bates to move their overall record to 22-9 on the season.
The wins were crucial in maintaining momentum heading into double-headers against conference foes Keene State and UMass Boston over the weekend.
But that momentum could have been snapped, had it not been for the play of Burleson and D’Alfonso. Facing an early 1-5 deficit against Thomas, the two connected for a pair of home-runs to rally the Huskies into an 11-8 win.
In terms of advancing to play-offs, it wasn’t necessarily an important win – it’s the conference games that will earn the Huskies a higher seed in the tournament. But, Burleson said after the win against Thomas, “you can’t slack off in these at-bats because they’ll carry over to the conference games.”
Judging by his output over the three game stretch, Burleson isn’t slacking off. The former Deering High School standout ended the week at a 6-for-14 mark that included four home runs and eight RBIs, keeping his batting average at a red-hot .427 to lead the team.
“I’ve watched (Burleson) play since he was in Little League with my son and I’ve known that he has had the potential to dominate at this level,” said coach Ed Flaherty. “He’s definitely having a dominating season. He’s playing a good shortstop for us too.” Until this season, Burleson traditionally played centerfield.
Burleson’s partner in crime, D’Alfonso, isn’t slacking at the plate either. The Huskies’ clean-up hitter provided a carbon-copy of Burleson’s 6-for-14 campaign at the plate while contributing three home runs of his own to bring his season total to ten.
“Anthony is a presence in the middle of our line-up,” said Flaherty. “He’s the kind of player who can give you a couple of runs with the swing of a bat because he can hit the ball out of the yard.”
The play of D’Alfonso and Burleson was also magnified by the injury bug that has plagued the Huskies throughout the season. With injuries nagging junior Andrew Stacy (Denmark) and sophomore Collin Henry (Penobscot), who both contribute on the mound, in the field and at the plate, the Huskies have had to get extra production from their leaders and key performances from elsewhere.
On the pitching side, freshman Nick Hahn (Guilford, CT) has earned his stripes by providing key relief appearances including a 5.2 inning campaign at Endicott where he managed to stop the team’s bleeding and allow D’Alfonso, who hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning, to overcome Endicott’s early 6-2 lead and push the Huskies to an 8-6 victory.
Offensively, sophomore Josh Mackey (Danvers, MA) played well during the week going 7-for-12, while filling in for the offensive juggernaut, senior co-captain Eddie Skeffington (Everett, MA), who uncharacteristically went 2-for-12 on the week.
But the Huskies still couldn’t manage to fire on all cylinders and put away lesser opponents as quickly as they would have liked. Mid-week games against teams like Thomas typically do not ignite the hottest competitive fires in players, a problem that Husky players and coaches alike prepare for.
“Coach told us that in these games we’re as much playing against ourselves as we are against the other teams,” Burleson said of the typical lull in energy in mid-week games.
“We’ve got to start rolling together. We’ve got good individual hitters, but we’ve got to piece it all together. We can’t have different spots of the order hot and others not.”
But despite the lack of energy, the Huskies have managed to persevere, hoping that eventually they’ll be healthy and that all of the bats will catch fire at the same time down the stretch.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the best out of this team, yet,” Flaherty said.
And for a team that has already outscored their opponents 275-167, that could prove fatal for the rest of the league and anyone who tries to stop them in the post-season.