Mellen, NU fear no team
Huskies set for Auburn
Northeastern starting pitcher Sean Mellen has no fear of ranked programs or foreign fields.
The 6-foot-5, 190-pound sophomore southpaw from Norwood had regular season wins at No. 17 Auburn and Missouri, en route to a 10-3 record and 2.28 ERA to help guide the Huskies into the NCAA tournament.
NU coach Mike Glavine has decided to hold Mellen for his club’s second game of the doubleelimination Raleigh Regional, and instead hand the ball to junior right-hander Tyler Brown for today’s opener (2 p.m.) against Auburn at Doak Field in Raleigh, N.C.
“We kind of know what to expect. They are a really good team and have a deep staff and a really good lineup,” said Mellen of the second-seeded Tigers in the fourteam regional. “But we know we can beat them, and we are going to go down with the same mindset when we went to Auburn earlier in the year.”
No. 1 seed and regional host North Carolina State will face No.4 Army in tonight’s nightcap. NU was one of 33 teams to receive an at-large bid, its first since 1973, as the Huskies make their eighth NCAA tourney appearance in program history — their first since 2003, when they received an automatic bid for winning the America East tournament.
Mellen has never played this late in the season, but he has a tested formula for success he hopes will carry the Huskies down the Road to Omaha.
“Getting ahead and throwing strikes is the biggest thing,” said Mellen. “If you are talking to an incoming freshman in college, you stress the importance of being able to throw strike one.
“No matter who you are facing, whether they are a ranked team at their field or a team that hasn’t won all year, you won’t be successful if you can’t throw strike one.”
NU’s 2-1 win at Auburn on March 10 was Mellen’s signature outing for a team that won a school-record 36 games. Mellen went eight innings and allowed one run on two hits with three walks and eight strikeouts on 106 pitches.
“I got off to a good start this year and the guys around me were huge and the guys on the staff helped me out a lot,” said Mellen. “Against Auburn the guys around me played great defense and we got up 1-0 early and it was nice to pitch with the lead. I was getting ahead of them throwing strike one.”
Mellen’s 10 wins equaled the school record for wins set by Peter Schultz in 1994. He pitched 79 innings, striking out 81 and walking 37. He gave up 20 earned runs and while holding opponents to a .176 batting average.
Mellen employs what he calls the “generic three” of fastball, curve and changeup, but it’s his improved change that has been most important this season.
“One of the biggest things for me this year other than fastball command was the development of a changeup,” he said. “I would say my changeup has become an out pitch this year.”