Bulls host Northeastern today
After fighting off the flu over the weekend, Daniel Albritton will be back on the mound tonight as the USF baseball team plays Northeastern University at 7 p.m.
The right-handed freshman out of Lake Gibson High School in Lakeland has appeared in two games so far for the Bulls, but this will be his first start. He has 10 strikeouts in 6.1 innings already this season.
USF coach Eddie Cardieri said Albritton is feeling a lot better and could have been used in relief in the win over Stetson on Sunday.
“We wouldn’t run him out there if we didn’t think we could. He’ll go out there and give us a good effort (today),” Cardieri said.
Tonight’s match-up comes about after USF’s game against Bethune-Cookman was rained out last Tuesday.
Cardieri said after that game was called off, the two teams couldn’t find a time and place to reschedule so he went to the phones.
“We got rained out against Bethune-Cookman, so you make some phone calls and they have to make that game up,” Cardieri said. “We couldn’t really find a mutually agreeable date with Bethune-Cookman to this point. If we have another rainout maybe we can play them later in the season, but they couldn’t play us when we could play and vice-versa so we just had to go find another opponent.”
What he found were the 2003 American East Conference champion Huskies out of Boston and an open Tuesday night in the Bulls ‘schedule.
Northeastern was already in the area playing a pair of games in Bradenton on Monday. The Huskies will scoot up to Red McEwen Field tonight for the game, which was announced over the weekend.
USF needed a makeup game because the number of wins is so important to make the post season, Cardieri said.
“If you get rained out you have to make it up, absolutely,” he said.
And Cardieri seemed satisfied with the level of opponent he was able to bring in on such short notice.
“There’s no doubt they’ll be all right,” Cardieri said.