Northeastern Baseball: Cam Maldonado Cycle Reflects Huskies Confidence
Northeastern Baseball: Cam Maldonado Cycle Reflects Huskies Confidence
Northeastern's Cam Maldonado hit for the cycle in a win over UMass, a highlight in the Huskies' surge toward the latter half of a standout 2023 season.
Cheers from the dugout urged Cam Maldonado along the base paths toward a clear goal.
"While I was running to second, I heard the entire dugout yelling, 'Go to three! Go to three! Go to three!' Alright, no matter what, I have to," Maldonado said of his triple hit against Northeastern's Beanpot rival UMass on April 11.
And, indeed, Maldonado legged it out to third base, finishing out a coveted cycle with what's statistically the most difficult portion to complete.
"My last at-bat...once I hit that ball and it went over the centerfielder's head, I was just digging for third; I wasn't trying to get a double there," Maldonado said, adding with a chuckle: "Even if the coach gave the stop sign, I was running right through it."
⬆️ 9 | CAM MALDONADO HAS HIT FOR THE CYCLE!!!!!!!! ? ?#HowlinHuskies #NCAABaseball pic.twitter.com/x7qGjdnQ1P
— Northeastern Baseball (@GoNUbaseball) April 11, 2023
His teammates' encouragement, the freshman outfielder said, gave him the confidence to reach one of baseball's most mythical milestones. And in Maldonado's otherworldly performance at the plate during an 18-11 win over the Minutemen, the arc of the Huskies' 2023 season resonates.
Northeastern heads into mid-April, with a little more than a month remaining in the regular season, sporting the best overall mark in the Colonial Athletic Association at 26-6 and very much in the conversation for an NCAA Tournament berth with the nation's 35th-best RPI.
Of course, such matters as RPI for NCAA Tournament worthiness only come into play for at-large hopefuls. Northeastern is looking to, as a team, close out the CAA campaign in much the same fashion as Maldonado's cycle, pushing each other as a team to complete the most difficult stretch of the journey with a flourish.
The Huskies are winners in 14-of-16, including their 10-game winning streak that kicked off with another local non-conference win. Northeastern beat a Boston College team currently ranked 11th in the nation on March 21 to ignite the run, a contest that included a run-scoring double for Maldonado.
Maldonado has hits in 12 of the last 16, and his two against BC marked a stretch in which he's hit multiple in nine games. His five-hit cycle performance extended an ongoing streak of multiple-hit appearances to six.
He's not the only Huskies hitter who's been raking of late, either.
First baseman Tyler MacGregor's fueled his team-leading .400 batting average in part with 10 multi-hit games since March 17. Danny Crossen, who has a knock in every appearance but two on the season, has delivered a hit in every game since the beginning of April.
The trio of MacGregor, Maldonado and Crossen set the pace for the nation's 13th-highest team batting average, a whopping .319 in 1,127 at-bats. All the more impressive is that McGregor and Maldonado are part of a corps of newcomers key to Northeastern's success.
Five-of-seven NU Huskies hitting better than .300 in 80-plus at-bats are either freshmen — Maldonado and middle infielder Carmelo Musacchia — or transfers. MacGregor arrived from Columbia, Alex Lane transferred via Bryant, and Harrison Feinberg came from USC.
"When I came in the fall, I was a little shy, nervous," Maldonado said. "But, as soon as winter came and the start of spring, our team as a whole just got really close together."
The dynamic, as Maldonado describes it, manifests in moments like the dugout pushing him to turn a stand-up double into a cycle-completing triple. And, more importantly, it's the energy pushing Northeastern collectively toward championship aspirations.