Jacob Oshinsky/WRBB Sports File
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It always sneaks up on you in Boston.
There’s snow piled along the sidewalks from a January blizzard. The air still bites. Your hands and face are dry and chafed from the below-zero windchills.
Yet, college baseball is back. In Brookline, the 2026 Northeastern baseball season shapes up as one of the most anticipated in program history.
In 2025, the Huskies notched a program-record 49 wins, delivered an NCAA-best 27-game win streak, and captured the Coastal Athletic Association and Baseball Beanpot Championship before an NCAA Tournament appearance and win.
The pitching staff led the way, completely turning around a 5.22 team ERA in 2024 with a nation-best 3.06 mark, while also leading the NCAA in WHIP (1.07) and shutouts (17).
Beyond statistics and records, the 2025 season was a manifestation of one thing Northeastern and head coach Mike Glavine have built for generations: culture.
“Stats are easy to see, but the culture pieces, energy, and the type of team that we’re together off the field are equally as important as on the field,” Glavine said.“So [culture] is really all I’m focused on from last year to this year. Now, we’ve closed the door on last year. We’re not talking about last year. We’re not talking about stats, wins, and streaks. All we talk about from last year is the culture, what we learned, and how important it is to be together and pull for each other.”
Sadly, college sports simply are not the same as they once were. With NIL and the emergence of the University of Transfer Portal, classic mid-major “diamonds in the rough” are becoming increasingly rare, plucked away as soon as they shine, or never allowed to develop in the first place.
No one is safe, including coaches. Lane Kiffin proved that.
After a video game season like 2025, you’d expect every impact player with remaining eligibility to transfer out and both Glavine and pitching coach Kevin Cobb to begin new chapters at Power Fours before you could say “NIL” five times fast.
But that didn’t happen. Outside of MLB Draft selections, non-drafted free agent signings, and graduations, Northeastern will return all pitchers and position players from the 2025 roster. Glavine and Cobb will begin their 12th and 14th seasons with the program, respectively.
“It’s a big deal to not lose players,” Glavine said. “For guys like [Harrison] Feinberg and plenty of others who could have left, their loyalty speaks to the culture piece again. If they weren’t happy and didn’t think we could win and didn’t think they were developing as humans, they wouldn’t want to stay.”
You can’t teach culture unless it’s Northeastern baseball.
Northeastern begins the 2026 season with three games in Phoenix, Ariz., as part of the MLB Desert Invitational. Max Schwartzberg will provide full broadcast and written coverage of the tournament, with game one against Grand Canyon University scheduled for Friday at 8 p.m. EST 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.