Jacob Oshinsky/WRBB Sports File
PHOENIX, Ariz. — Put simply, the 2026 college baseball season did not start Northeastern’s way. After a 257-day offseason, head coach Mike Glavine’s Huskies escaped the cold and welcomed the new campaign at Grand Canyon University in game one of the MLB Desert Invitational. Two hours and three minutes later, the Lopes walked away with a run-rule 10-0 win in seven innings.
In 2025, Northeastern led the NCAA in ERA (3.06), WHIP (1.07), and shutouts (17). Yet all four rotation starters and top three relievers, or — in Glavine’s terms — “90%” of the past season’s innings, departed. To combat this, Northeastern brought in nine new hurlers for 2026, and Glavine gave the Opening Day nod to UMass transfer Robbie O’Connor to face a historically dominant GCU offense, which did not disappoint.
The Lopes scored their 10 runs on just eight hits, but much of the damage was self-inflicted; O’Connor lasted just two-thirds of an inning and hit four batters in addition to issuing two free passes, allowing four earned runs in his Northeastern debut. GCU’s first hit of the day, a double, came in the bottom of the first off the bat of senior Dominic Chacon to the right-center field gap to score the game’s first run.
Head coach Gregg Wallis explained that Chacon’s first hit in a Lopes uniform was a “long time coming.”
“Dominic Chacon’s been in our program, but he was hurt all last year,” he said. “He was our top recruit coming into the last year before he got hurt. He had a great debut for us.”
O’Connor’s hit by pitches, on top of the double, gave GCU a 4–0 lead, and after he faced the first nine Lopes, Glavine turned to Georgetown-transfer Matthew Sapienza with the bases loaded and two outs, who forced a lineout to left to stop the bleeding.
Meanwhile, junior Garret Ahearn got the start for the Lopes. Ahearn ranked second on the team in innings pitched (76.1) in 2025. In that sample, Ahearn pitched to a 3.11 ERA through the end of March, yet finished the season with a 6.72 mark after the hits and walks piled up in the back half of the year. Wallis wanted to see the right-hander build off a 2025 that showed flashes of dominance, and Ahearn delivered, tossing five scoreless on three hits, no walks, and five punchouts.
“[Ahearn’s] gotten better every year he’s been here,” Wallis said. “He smothers the zone. As a freshman, he threw 20 innings. Last year, he shot into a starter role as our Saturday guy and just continues to improve. At times last year, he was great, but teams made adjustments. His overall numbers didn’t tell the full story of what we saw from him and how good we thought he was. He’s come back and emerged as our ace, and we’re hoping that he can continue to put together outings like he did tonight.”
GCU added a fifth run in the second inning from another strong first impression at the plate; graduate transfer Mito Perez began the frame with a double and came around to score on a sacrifice fly from junior Cannon Peery. By the end of the night, Perez went 2-for-3 with three runs scored and reached safely three of four times.
“[Perez] was in our conference, and with an offense like Northeastern that runs the bases aggressively, you need someone like Mito back there because he can handle that,” Wallis said. “He’s been everything we hoped he’d be and more, and his GCU debut was amazing.”
In the fourth inning, GCU extended its lead to seven runs after Sapienza hung a curveball in a lengthy plate appearance to junior Billy Scalderfiri, who plated two on a ringing single up the middle. In relief, Sapienza hurled three innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on two walks with four strikeouts.
Subsequently, Joseph Hauser entered to begin his junior season after combining for just 11.1 frames as an underclassman. Hauser tossed the final 2.1 innings for Northeastern and surrendered three runs (two earned) on four strikeouts without a free pass. Against Hauser, junior Troy Sanders delivered the game’s eighth run via sacrifice fly in the fifth inning. The following two came courtesy of Peery’s two-run no-doubter over the left field wall.
GCU junior JT Guerro relieved Ahearn for two scoreless innings on just 17 pitches. On the night, Northeastern mustered just four hits.
“We’ve got a lot of respect for Northeastern,” Wallis said. “They are a great baseball team. We’re in Phoenix. They are not. I think you saw that early, but that’s a great baseball team over there. We know they’re going to be really good.”
Northeastern is back in action Saturday for game two of the MLB Desert Invitational against Nebraska, with first pitch scheduled for 8:30 pm EST. Max Schwartzberg will have your call on Sports+.
Max Schwartzberg is a junior at Northeastern and covers hockey, basketball, and baseball in print and on air. He is also a Cape Cod Baseball League announcer for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks. You can read his articles here and follow his Instagram here.