They lost to the Boston Red Sox, but the Northeastern baseball team came away winners anyway at their March 5 exhibition game in Florida.

That’s because the players were thrilled to bat against flame-throwing Curt Schilling. And the nearly 530 alumni, administrators, parents, and friends who turned out for the Fort Myers festivities got to mingle with Sox legends Luis Tiant and Jim Rice, general manager Theo Epstein, and CEO Larry Lucchino.

NU’s marketing affiliation with the Red Sox helped pave the way for the matchup.

Pregame events in Florida featured remarks by Huskies starting pitcher Justin Hedrick, coach Neil McPhee, President Freeland, and Board of Trustees chair Neal Finnegan, BA’61, H’98, who hurled the game’s first pitch.

Red Sox broadcaster Joe Castiglione, a lecturer at the School of Journalism, emceed the pregame activity and also interviewed Freeland on air. The New England Sports Network’s Jerry Remy (whose son, Jordan, is a Northeastern student) and Don Orsillo, AS’91, chatted with Freeland during their broadcast, too.

In other baseball news, in mid-April two Northeastern folks organized a hundred- inning spectacular at Kelly Baseball Diamond in Boston’s Hyde Park to benefit Schilling’s “Pitch for ALS” effort, which raises funds to fight Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Middler marketing major Michael Lembo and Brett Rudy, BA’95, planned the marathon two-day event—which featured Schilling himself—for the Boston Men’s Baseball League.

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