The second-seeded Huskies carry a 27-game winning streak into their NCAA regional. They open Friday against Mississippi State (34-21).
The Northeastern Huskies extended the nation’s longest winning streak Saturday with an affirming comeback that delivered the ultimate reward — an automatic bid to the NCAA baseball tournament.
Two days after their Coastal Athletic Association championship, the Huskies received their ultimate assignment. They’re headed to a four-team NCAA regional hosted by Florida State, the ninth seed overall in the tournament’s 64-team field.
The No. 19 Huskies are rated as the second seed in their regional, thanks to their active 27-game winning streak and the country’s top-ranked pitching staff. They’ll open the regional at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time Friday (streaming on ESPN+) against third-seeded Mississippi State (34-21), which tied for 10th in the powerful Southeastern Conference (15-15) this season. The Bulldogs were upset in the first round of the SEC tournament, 9-0, by 14th-seeded Texas A&M.
Regional favorite Florida State (38-14) opens against Bethune-Cookman (37-21). The winner of the double-elimination regional advances to a two-team, best-of-three-games super regional — with that survivor moving on to the eight-team College World Series.
The Huskies’ 48-9 record is the best in Northeastern history and tops in the country. Their pitching staff ranks No. 1 nationally in earned run average (2.86), shutouts (17) and walks plus hits per inning pitched (1.04). They’re third in the NCAA in stolen bases and staff ace Will Jones is No. 3 overall in ERA (1.82) and wins (11-0).
A trio of Husky starters rank among the nation’s top 17 in WHIP among Jordan Gottesman (fourth), Jones (16th) and Aiven Cabral (17th).
The Huskies have yet to win a game in six double-elimination NCAA appearances against traditional baseball powerhouses dating back to 1994. Northeastern coach Mike Glavine believes this group can transcend that past.
“This is the best group — the most prepared group — going into a regional tournament that we’ve had,” Glavine said. “For me now it’s just making sure our guys believe they can do this.
“We get in these situations where sometimes we don’t play our best baseball and we worry about things that we can’t control,” Glavine said of past Northeastern appearances in the NCAA tournament. “I want to see the same team I’ve seen all year long. It’s going to be a great opponent, an SEC opponent in Mississippi State. We have to focus on ourselves and can’t get caught up in who we’re playing. It’s going to be tough, obviously, but we’re going to be tough.”
Northeastern is making its 11th appearance overall in the 64-team event.
“It’s going to be awesome to play in an environment like that,” said redshirt-junior outfielder Harrison Feinberg, MVP of the CAA tournament. “I know most of us haven’t played in a big ACC park like that — against an SEC opponent as well.
“We just keep playing like we’ve been doing and then we’ll be fine.”
Gottesman believed the Huskies’ togetherness will see them through.
“Really good teams in that regional, but we’re a great team as well and we’re excited to show the world,” Gottesman said. “We have a tight-knit group and we’re ready to go out there and play our game and not let the noise get to us. We’re excited to keep going.”
The Huskies will draw strength from their CAA championship performance Saturday night in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Trailing, 6-3, in the eighth inning of the title game against their biggest conference rival, second-seeded North Carolina Wilmington, the Huskies exploded around a three-run double by Feinberg for a 9-6 victory that will encourage dreams of better wins still to come.
The top-seeded Huskies (28-2 in conference) earned their program’s second CAA baseball championship while setting a conference record for victories in a season.
“It’s just amazing, hard to put into words,” Glavine told reporters shortly after his team’s CAA-clinching comeback. “You get emotional in these situations because you think of all the work that goes into it, from the opening team meeting to this moment right here.
“Nothing comes easy for our team. They have to work for everything and to see them celebrate and to win this the way they did — to see their enjoyment for each other, I can’t say enough about that. It’s just a great feeling.”
Exploiting their opening-round bye in the double-elimination tournament, the favored Huskies swept through their first two games — beating Charleston and UNCW by a combined 17-1 on Thursday and Friday. From the losers’ bracket, UNCW won a semifinal Saturday afternoon vs. Charleston, 6-5, advancing the Seahawks to a title game rematch that night against Northeastern.
Glavine recognized that competing in a pair of must-win games hours apart would be fatiguing for UNCW.
“We just had to keep it close, let’s keep fighting,” Glavine said of the Huskies’ early deficit in the title game. “We felt like the later the game went and the closer it stayed, that we had an advantage because of the bye and not having already played today.”
Incited by their 11-1 loss to Northeastern on Friday, the Seahawks seized a 3-0 lead in the second inning of the title game. The Huskies were trailing 5-1 in the fifth when their power duo of Cam Maldonado (double) and Feinberg (home run) combined for a pair of runs in the sixth.
Feinberg (four home runs and nine RBI in the tournament) dominated the title game while going 3 for 4 with two homers and six RBI — including an eighth-inning double that goes down as the biggest hit of Northeastern’s season.
“Feinberg was otherworldly, just unbelievable,” Glavine said. “He’s the same kid all the time, thank God. He brings it every day. He’s an incredibly hard worker, hard player, and the moment’s never too big for him.”
The Huskies’ eighth inning began with singles by Jack Doyle and Ryan Gerety, followed by a walk to the intimidating Maldonaldo (.371, 15 homers and 59 RBI this season) to load them up with no outs for Feinberg. His bases-clearing double to right-center tied the game while asserting the confidence of this special team. An ensuing two-run double by Carmelo Musacchia put the Huskies ahead for good.
Brett Dunham earned a second straight save in the ninth while making the CAA all-tournament team alongside second baseman Musacchia, right fielder Gerety and Gottesman, the semifinal starting pitcher.
Glavine’s program has achieved a high level of consistency over the past five seasons, going 197-83-1 in that span.
“It’s just the togetherness,” Glavine said. “I keep saying you can’t measure what we do with a radar gun or a stopwatch. You have to feel it. You have to be here. You have to experience the energy that they play with, the enthusiasm. They love baseball, they love each other and they work really hard and they care. It’s a blessing to be able to coach them.”