TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — With their backs against the wall and their season on the line, Northeastern pulled out a miraculous 4-3 victory over Bethune-Cookman to keep their season alive.
After Friday’s 11-2 loss to Mississippi State — which snapped Northeastern’s 27 game winning streak — the Huskies found themselves in the loser’s bracket of the Tallahassee regional.
Head coach Mike Glavine and his staff turned to graduate transfer Jordan Gottesman to take the mound. Gottesman, the Huskies’ regular Sunday starter, sports a 2.24 ERA on the year and was tasked with keeping their season going.
Before that, however, Northeastern found some offense in the top of the first inning. Sophomore outfielder Ryan Gerety led off the game with a double to left center and quickly advanced to third due to a throwing error by BCU starting pitcher Edwin Sanchez on a pickoff attempt. Two batters later, Harrison Feinberg drove in Gerety with a sacrifice fly to put the Huskies on the board first for the second consecutive day.
Following that early lead, Gottesman was brilliant on the mound all day. He ultimately gave up just one run in the contest on an RBI double from Bethune-Cookman’s most dangerous hitter, sophomore Andrey Martinez in the fifth inning.
“He’s just really focused on his strengths and pitching to those every week,” said Northeastern catcher Gregory Bozzo. “He’s really easy to catch, he’s usually hitting every spot…He’s a special talent.”
To open the sixth, fresh off the Wildcats tying the game, Northeastern responded with one run of their own. After a one-out double from Feinberg, Jack Goodman singled through the left side, scoring his center fielder.
In the bottom half of the inning, Charlie Walker took over pitching duties for Northeastern. The righty was perfect through both the sixth and the seventh, not allowing a single base runner. In the eighth that streak would end, as the Wildcats once again equalized, this time on a Jorge Rodriguez sacrifice fly to score Darryl Lee.
With both team’s seasons on the line, this hard fought, low-scoring battle headed to the ninth all evened up at two. After a Matt Brinker flyout and an Alex Lane strikeout, in the top half, the Huskies dugout was quiet. Following two swinging strikes from Gregory Bozzo, the odds seemed at just about zero the Huskies would take a lead into the bottom of the inning.
Then, one swing changed everything.
Bozzo connected on a slider, launching a solo, go-ahead home run to left center field, his first home run of the season.
“I asked God, honestly,” Bozzo said. “I was like, ‘if you’re gonna give me one this year, please give it to me right now’. And he did.”
With the game completely turned on its head, senior Jack Doyle was able to reach first on a throwing error by redshirt freshman Jeter Polledo at shortstop. He then advanced on a balk from clearly rattled relief pitcher Yoansell Diaz. Next, Northeastern benefitted from an unbelievable mistake by the Wildcats infield.
Gerety, at the plate, skied a high popup on the infield grass between third base and the pitcher’s mound. No one on the Bethune-Cookman defense played it right. The ball miraculously dropped on the infield grass as Doyle came all the way around from second to score and extend Northeastern’s lead.
With a two-run lead, and just three outs away from the victory, Glavine turned to senior Brett Dunham to clinch the game in the ninth. It would not be easy. Dunham walked the first two batters before senior Sergio Rivera advanced both on a successful sacrifice bunt.
A followup Daniel Figueroa grounder to first should have been out number two, but the ball was fumbled by Lane as one run scored, and Bethune-Cookman set themselves up with runners on the corners and just one out, trailing by one. Figueroa promptly stole second base, making matters even scarier for the Huskies.
In the most stress inducing situation of his season, Dunham was able to get a monumental strikeout of Lee. Then, one out away from victory, he forced a weak grounder to end the ballgame.
For Northeastern, the victory not only extended their season, it snapped a 12 game losing streak in the NCAA tournament, a stretch dating back to 1973.
“We definitely would be lying if we said we didn’t feel it,” Glavine said of the team’s history of struggles in the tournament. “I’m just really happy for the guys because they work so hard, play so hard, and things don’t come easy for us and the guys in our program…we just wanted that so bad today.”
The Huskies season and tournament will continue on Sunday with a 12 p.m. start against Mississippi State, following the Bulldogs loss to FSU. Luke Graham and Zeno Minotti will be on the call for full coverage of the game on WRBB 104.9 FM.
Zeno Minotti is an undergraduate student at Northeastern University studying Communications, Psychology, and Sociology. He is a writer and broadcaster for Northeastern hockey and baseball. Read all of his articles here and follow him on X here.