BROOKLINE — Northeastern closed the regular season in style Saturday afternoon, getting five sterling innings from Jordan Gottesman complemented by offensive contributions up and down the lineup as the Huskies closed out a series sweep of NC A&T with a mercy rule-shortened 12-0 victory.
The win put a bow on Northeastern’s spectacular campaign, moving the nationally ranked Huskies to 45-9 overall. Additionally, the victory extended the team’s NCAA-best win streak to 24, a truly stunning accomplishment that reflects just how dominant this team has been for the vast majority of this season.
As has been the case all season, the Huskies’ success started on the mound. The left-handed Gottesman was razor-sharp, setting down the first eight Aggies he faced before a Jason Campo single broke up the no-no with two outs in the third.
Nothing came of it, though; Gottesman struck out Bruce Wyche to end the inning, and coasted through two more perfect innings before his day came to an end. All in all, it was a 55-pitch, five-inning, nine-strikeout, one-hit outing for the big left-hander, who finished off a truly superb regular-season campaign with a truncated gem that brought his ERA down to a staggering 2.40 while keeping him relatively fresh going forward.
“Next week (at the CAA Tournament), we got shortened days, we don’t know how this will play out, who we’ll match up against,” said head coach Mike Glavine postgame. “We wanted all three of [the weekend starters] to go a little shorter this weekend, [and] they’ll be ready to roll.”
It wasn’t a banner day offensively, despite the twelve runs. NU managed ten hits, but several of those hits — and eventual runs — were caused as much by A&T’s defensive and pitching struggles as they were by Northeastern’s hitting prowess.
Things kicked off in the bottom of the first, when Aggies starter Grant Sentell issued a two-out walk to Harrison Feinberg. Jack Goodman followed up with a first-pitch single, before Carmelo Musacchia’s soft line drive nestled down just inside the left-field foul line, scoring Feinberg and putting runners at second and third with two outs. Brinker followed up with a double of his own, tearing into a first-pitch slider to score two more runs.
The 3-0 lead lasted until the bottom of the fourth inning, when A&T reliever Jordan Bright plunked Jack Doyle, walked Alex Lane, and committed a throwing error which led to a run on a Greg Bozzo bunt attempt. A Ryan Gerety sac fly scored Lane, and after back-to-back RBI singles from Feinberg and Goodman, the lead stretched to 7-0.
Things started rather similarly in the sixth inning; NU got going with a walk and HBP before another sac fly, this time from Feinberg. A Chris Walsh RBI double (which should’ve been caught) added a run, and a Musacchia single (also should’ve been caught) put runners on the corners with Northeastern just a run away from triggering the 10-run mercy rule.
Yet another Aggies’ misstep scored the run, as a failed pickoff attempt allowed Walsh to cross. An Eric Cha double (once again, should’ve been caught) kept the pressure on, and singles from Doyle and Lane drove in the 11th and 12th runs of the afternoon.
Two little-used pitchers in Joseph Hauser and James Morice closed proceedings for the Huskies; Hauser worked around a walk to escape the sixth, and Morice induced a double-play ball to wipe out a leadoff hit in the seventh. Morice fanned A&T’s Savoi Edwards to wrap it up, and the Huskies breezed past the Aggies in their season finale, 12-0.
“I just wanted to see the offense get going a little better,” remarked Glavine. “I didn’t love us the last couple days offensively.”
Additionally, the mercy-rule victory allowed Glavine to use some lesser relied-upon relievers, getting his top-end guys some much needed rest ahead of a shortened week and what could end up being a five-game weekend.
“I felt good about our bullpen,” said Coach Glavine. “The big thing is making sure we’re as deep on the mound as possible going into the tournament.”
The biggest test is still to come, and all of this success will lose some of its luster if these Huskies can’t put it together in postseason play. 24 straight wins don’t happen by accident, though, and even while the ultimate goal still remains a distance away, there’s no taking away what this team has done.
“[The win streak] means you have great players, they work really hard, and they really care. What we just did in the regular season means they bring it every day, they prepare right, they care… what we just watched is pretty freakin’ special.”
There are a litany of adjectives you could use to describe the 45-9, undefeated since April 6, nationally ranked, winners-of-24-straight Huskies. You could open a thesaurus, find the word “incredible”, and read every single synonym aloud. It’s been, for lack of better phrasing, one hell of a year.
They — and we — will hope that the best is yet to come, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be. What’s happened so far, though, across 54 games, has been nothing short of special — pretty freakin’ special, indeed.
Northeastern returns to action on Thursday, when they’ll take on a to-be-determined opponent in their CAA Tournament Opener. Zeno Minotti will have your call on Sports+, with first pitch set for 3 p.m. in Charleston, South Carolina.