MONMOUTH, N.J. — “Be relentless.”
Those were the words Northeastern head coach Mike Glavine gave his team pregame before they took on the Monmouth Hawks in Game One of the weekend series. They were so relentless Friday that they scored in every inning, en route to securing a 16-5, seven-inning mercy rule win.
Right fielder Ryan Gerety got the game started quickly with a lead off home run that carried with the wind to right. Shortstop Jack Goodman then did him one better, drilling the ball out of the deepest part of the yard in center field to give the Huskies a quick 3-0 lead in the first inning. This was just a snippet of the offensive firepower the Northeastern bats had during this game.
Lefty Will Jones toed the slab for the Huskies and quickly let up a solo home run to Monmouth first baseman Chris Walsh in the opening inning. This broke a 50 inning scoreless streak from the Northeastern pitching staff, who came into today with the best ERA in the CAA at 3.19. That was the only run Jones allowed, as his ability to utilize his slider was just spectacular. The horizontal break on said pitch was able to get lefty batters swinging on the outside corner, and also froze righty hitters on the inside part of the plate.
When asked about the pitching staff, Glavine gave all the credit to associate head coach Kevin Cobb for his hard work with the pitching staff, citing how Cobb deserves the love and national attention.
“He’s a guy that just flies under the radar,” Glavine said. ”He puts together a great pitching program for us from the fall up to these moments that you see today.”
Glavine went on to add how proud he is of Northeastern’s ability to solidify their starting rotation, a goal the team had coming into 2025. The top three starters — Jones, Aiven Cabral, and Jordan Gottesman — in particular have been outstanding, not to mention the depth from every other member of the staff. As a whole, the Northeastern pitching has had solid success to this point in the season, something Glavine attributed to their hard work every day
“It’s healthy to have internal competition to compete and want to be great for yourself, great for your team, and give length in games,” he said.
Northeastern continued to keep the runs coming from the second to the sixth, notably a Matt Brinker two-run home run into left center field, his third home run this season. Brinker has seen limited playing time this season, but has been rotating back into the lineup, most recently starting two games last weekend against Charleston and in Friday’s contest against Monmouth. Goodman also launched his second home run of the game in the sixth, a two run shot to extend the lead to 11-1.
Monmouth was able to respond with two of their own in the bottom of the sixth off Carson Walsh, who was appearing in his sixth game this season.
In the seventh inning, Northeastern showed great plate discipline, with three Huskies drawing bases loaded walks to extend the lead to 16-3. This maturity at the plate displayed Friday is something Glavine has seen progress throughout the year to this point.
“We were trying to do too many things at once in the batter’s box, and I think what you see now is a team that’s clearly focused with intentions and can execute a plan on a repeated basis,” he said. “I think you see a relentless attack from the offense where you get to pitch to them one through nine. They can all do different things, and we try to slug there in the middle of the lineup.”
James Morice and Joseph Hauser made their third and fourth appearances, respectively, in the bottom of the seventh to close the game out for the Huskies and bring them their 31st win of the season.
This victory has brought the Huskies’ winning streak to ten, a remarkable milestone in what has continued to be a spectacular regular season. However, Northeastern looks to continue to keep their foot on the gas pedal and be in the driver’s seat in the CAA.
“I don’t care,” Glavine said when asked about the win streak. “We’re not looking at anything like that…I think we learned a lot from last year in getting caught up in stuff.” In 2024, the Huskies finished with 38 regular season wins, third-best in the CAA, but lost both games in the conference tournament to end their season.
“We just knew everything that was going wrong and there was a lot of noise, and that’s what we’re trying to get away from this year,” Glavine continued.”This team has a lot to prove. The noise is blocked, [and] the browsers are closed, as we say.”
The Huskies will look for the series victory Saturday in Game Two from Monmouth Baseball Field. Dylan Black will have the call at 1 p.m. from the Jersey Shore on WRBB Sports+.