WILMINGTON, N.C. — Northeastern’s quest for the 2024 CAA championship title is over.
After losses to Hofstra on Wednesday and William & Mary on Thursday, the Huskies were knocked out of contention in North Carolina in disappointment. Coming into the tournament, they were the No. 3 seed of the six teams, and had high hopes after many successful series in the regular season versus CAA opponents.
But, Thursday’s 9-6 loss to William & Mary ended those aspirations before the weekend even began.
The story of the week for Northeastern was pitching. It began with a lackluster performance from Husky arms on Wednesday, when they gave up 17 hits to the strong bats of Hofstra. On Thursday, that trend continued. The game started off with question marks around whether or not scheduled starting pitcher Wyatt Scotti was going to be able to make his scheduled appearance after suffering an off-field injury during Wednesday’s game.
Nonetheless, those concerns were eased when Scotti trotted out to the mound to begin his start. The senior worked decently well on the bump, going five innings allowing seven hits and striking out three. Although it was not the best of starts for Scotti, he put his best foot forward by going deep into the game and helped to sustain a 4-3 lead for the Huskies by the time his day ended.
The pitcher did exactly what the Huskies needed to have a push for longevity in the tournament — eating up innings and keeping William & Mary’s scoring low, especially considering that Northeastern had to use six arms in the loss to Hofstra the day before.
However, the Husky bullpen behind Scotti was once again unable to seal the deal. The collective of Aiven Cabral, Will Jones, Cooper McGrath, and Brett Dunham allowed a combined total of six runs on 12 hits to the 23 batters they faced.
“We just didn’t pitch well. It [was a] combination of bad pitches and good hitting and a little bit of luck,” said Northeastern head coach Mike Glavine.
Overall, the entirety of the pitching staff had an up and down season, but the struggles were certainly most noticeable during the CAA tournament — Northeastern let up a total of 36 combined hits in the two games they played.
Offensively the Huskies continued to dominate and did not disappoint in either games. Despite only amassing six runs on Thursday, the Huskies got a huge contribution from Alex Lane, who tied the game at one by hitting his 18th home run to lead off the second inning. Unfortunately, Lane’s career season could end following the early exit — it is yet to be seen whether or not the Huskies will continue to play baseball with an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament.
Even with the loss to William & Mary and the upsetting performances in the CAA tournament, the Huskies do still have a chance at getting that bid to the NCAA tournament.
It would take some luck, but RPI, which is an index that measures play throughout the year and tries to estimate teams’ theoretical ranking amongst the field of NCAA Division I teams, has Northeastern currently ranked at 33rd, meaning they are in contention to be selected by the committee for an at-large bid. The answer to the question whether or not Northeastern gets a bid will be determined on Monday.
“I don’t like [our chances], I think we are done…The reality of the situation is you can’t go into your tournament and go 0-and-2 [and expect to get a bid],” Glavine said. “I hope I am wrong, I pray I am wrong, but I am preparing for our name not to be called on Monday.”
All that being said, if that is it for the Huskies, the next time they hit the field they will likely have a very different looking team. Most notably, star Tyler MacGregor will have aged out of NCAA eligibility and will move on after two outstanding seasons. Similarly, there will be unexpected transfers in and out of the program, along with the other seniors and grad students that will no longer be playing ball, and even the aspect of the impending MLB Draft that will likely draw Mike Sirota away from the NCAA and Northeastern. Despite the disappointing ending to the year, coach Glavine still had great praise for his team and the program he has created.
“I love it here,” Glavine said. “I love our guys and our culture.”