WILMINGTON, N.C. — After forcing a winner-take-all game in the CAA championship tournament, the Huskies rose victorious in a thrilling 3-2 walk-off victory against the top tournament seed Campbell Fighting Camels.
The stage was set thanks to Northeastern’s incredible run, salvaging their tournament hopes after falling in the first game to Hofstra. On Friday, Northeastern stayed alive after eliminating the host team, UNCW. On Saturday, the Huskies swept two games: a rematch against Hofstra to eliminate them, and the first of two wins against the Camels to even the championship and force the winner-take-all game.
The championship game began with an all-out pitcher’s duel. Northeastern’s Friday night ace, redshirt junior righty Robbie O’Connor, took the mound in the top of the first and immediately set the tone with a big strikeout to star leadoff sophomore Jett Music. Some early errors kept the first two defensive half-innings from looking particularly clean, but O’Connor came out of the gate strong, throwing four scoreless innings to start.
Campbell sent out senior Caleb White as an opener, but his departure in the Camels’ first jam in the third inning began a trend of consistent pitching changes. Senior right fielder Carmelo Mussacchia recorded Northeastern’s first hit of the game on a bunt single to start the inning, marking his 200th career hit in the program. A sac-bunt advanced Musacchia to second, the speedster stealing third to move 90 feet away from scoring the game’s first run with just one out.
Campbell baseball head coach Chris Marx then made a bold decision early, calling upon starting left fielder freshman Carlos Lugo to take the bump and escape the jam. The two-way lefty successfully escaped, allowing no runs with only 9.1 innings of NCAA experience prior to the matchup.
O’Connor’s day would come to an end after a leadoff home run from junior center fielder Mike Murphy and an RBI single from redshirt senior third baseman Jonah Oster gave Campbell a 2-0 lead headed into the bottom of the fifth.
After one inning of work on the mound, Lugo returned to the outfield to be relieved by yet another two-way player. The move came after the Huskies loaded the bases on a hit-by-pitch to redshirt senior left fielder Harrison Feinberg, a single from sophomore shortstop Henry DiGiorgio, and a walk issued to freshman third baseman Tyler Harmony. With no outs, the Camels needed a new dual-threat phenom to work some magic.
And it was none other than the designated hitter Music who took the mound, with a far more experienced 41.2 innings pitched this season. Because Music had been moved from designated hitter to pitcher, any subsequent pitching change to a pitcher-only player would force that hurler to bat in the designated hitter’s spot.
Music would nearly escape the inning unscathed, allowing only one run to score on a fielder’s choice. After recording a flyout and delivering a passed ball, Campbell intentionally walked senior designated hitter Matt Brinker on a 3-1 count with first base open. A following groundout allowed Music to close out the fifth inning with Campbell still holding a 2-1 lead.
Graduate student Matthew Sapienza would be Northeastern’s first reliever of the day, the right-hander recording two outs before freshman righty Tom Mahoney followed him in relief in the sixth inning with no runs allowed. Northeastern capitalized on the scoreless frame by putting runners on the corners with one out, bumping Music off the mound and into the outfield. DiGiorgio walked to load the bases, and an RBI single from Harmony evened the score at two apiece.
The Camels went to their third pitcher of the inning, bringing out submarine redshirt sophomore Beau Brailey to face Feinberg with the bases still loaded. After inducing a fielder’s choice at home on a ground ball, Brailey’s job was done, and Marx would call for the third pitching change of the inning. The Camels turned to right-handed redshirt senior David Rossow, the Camels’ ace, who would finish the game.
Rossow would go the remaining 2.1 innings, collecting 4 strikeouts on the day to finish his season with an impressive 104 strikeouts. The total puts him within the top 30 of all pitchers across the NCAA.
Senior righty Luc Rising and sophomore right-hander Andrew Rogovic pitched the seventh and eighth innings, respectively, until Rogovic found himself in huge trouble.
With runners on second and third with only one out, Campbell was set up for the perfect squeeze bunt play. On a 2-1 count to Murphy, a curveball that hit the dirt in front of the plate was ruled a foul tip on a bunt, but with the runners in motion, he signaled to his teammates as if it were a wild pitch. The controversial call was ruled unreviewable, and with a dugout warning already on Marx, Campbell could do nothing more than send their runners back. Rogovic struck out Murphy on the following 2-2 count, but then issued a walk to the pitcher Rossow to load the bases on two outs.
Northeastern head coach Mike Glavine came out of the dugout after quite the wild sequence, signaling for a pitching change, and, surprisingly to nobody, called upon graduate student Andrew Wertz.
Wertz collected his 4th outing within 48 hours, closing the game on Friday night and collecting both saves on Saturday. The closer struck out Music to strand the bases loaded, and an impressive three strikeouts from the Camels’ Rossow in the bottom of the eighth took the game to the ninth with the score still tied at two.
Wertz stayed on the bump to work a 1-2-3 inning, setting up the Huskies’ chance to walk it off with the top of the lineup due up.
Tyler Harmony got things started with a leadoff double that deflected off the glove of the third baseman Oster. Harrison Feinberg followed with a single off Rossow, to advance the winning run in Harmony to second base. Then, junior Ryan Gerety would continue his illustrious season, lacing a line drive single into right field to drive home Harmony for the walk-off comeback stunner, securing Northeastern’s back-to-back conference titles.
“We just kept fighting like we did all year long,” said Glavine. “I hate going cliché, but nobody believed in us all year long; it’s just a fact.”
With the win, the Northeastern Huskies will be advancing to the NCAA Tournament Regionals for the 12th time in program history. In the first round, they will be taking on the Kansas Jayhawks, the hosts of the Lawrence Regional, which also includes the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Missouri State Bears.
Regional tournaments across the United States are set by the NCAA to start on May 29th, 2026. The Huskies will travel to Lawrence, Kan., as the four-seed in their regional, where they will face the hosting Kansas Jayhawks in the first round. WRBB will provide full coverage of the event.
Michael Kaminsky is a rising junior at Northeastern, approaching his second year with WRBB. He values being a part of the broadcast team greatly and is always thrilled to cover games, especially his favorite sport, baseball. You can read more of his coverage with WRBB here.