BROOKLINE — Coming off a 17-5 run rule win the day before, the Huskies’ bats looked for more of the same on a beautiful 50°F day with limited wind at Friedman Diamond.
On the mound, Northeastern handed the ball to senior transfer Luc Rising. Having pitched six innings in each of his last two starts, Rising came into today with a 1.86 ERA and tied for a team lead in strikeouts (19).
On the other side, Elon elected to start their afternoon with sophomore southpaw Owen Winebarger. After spending the entirety of the 2025 season in the bullpen, Winebarger’s stint as a starter has been a mixed bag with a 4.74 ERA: he allowed six runs in 0.2 innings pitched against Charleston Southern, but went six and a third scoreless innings in the win against No. 10 NC State March 10.
The Huskies’ offense was threatening early, as junior outfielder Ryan Gerety and redshirt senior Harrison Feinberg got on base and pulled off a double steal to put two in scoring position with no outs. However, Northeastern was only able to get one run across with a sacrifice bunt from senior shortstop Carmelo Mussachia that limited the damage early.
Winebarger bounced back the next inning, retiring three batters in a row before allowing a Mussachia RBI single that extended the Northeastern lead to 2-0. Although able to get another run across, that lead could have easily been more if senior catcher Matt Brinker didn’t get picked off at second, which ended the third inning and proved to be the beginning of a series of costly mistakes for the Huskies.
Rising retired the first seven batters of the game before hitting junior transfer Connor Roche, just one of two baserunners he allowed in the first three innings.
In the top of the fourth, Elon graduate student transfer Brian DuRoff lifted a routine pop fly that should have been an easy out — but a miscommunication between junior shortstop Chris Walsh and sophomore right fielder Carter Bentley resulted in a collision, allowing DuRoff to reach base. Two batters later, Rising plunked redshirt junior outfielder Vince Fattore to put two runners on with one out. Seamless RBI singles from sophomore shortstop Jake Hajdu and Roche drove in the runners to level the game at two apiece.
In the bottom of the frame, with Northeastern sophomore catcher Cooper Tarantino at first and one out, the Huskies looked to have something going as redshirt freshman AJ Aschettino seemed to have snuck a ground ball through the infield for a single. However, the ball hit Tarantino as it rolled into the outfield, causing Tarantino to be out on a runner’s interference, erasing any chance of a potential threat.
As both Rising and Winebarger cruised through the fifth and sixth innings, it became pretty obvious that the game would come down to which pitching staff made a mistake first. However, that exact moment would come up in the seventh inning.
With Hajdu on third and two outs, Elon senior Jackson Alford chopped the ball to third, but Aschettino’s throw to first pulled fellow redshirt freshman first baseman Anthony Ruggiero off the bag, which proved to allow Elon’s winning run.
“It’s never one play,” said Northeastern head coach Mike Glavine. “It’s a series of events throughout the entire game, and it’s really hard to win games. I think we made a very good play on the ground ball to third that gave them the winning run, so we just got to be better from that perspective in a one run game.”
In the top of the eighth, with Winebarger still on the mound and Gerety and Feinberg on base, Brinker stepped to the plate with a prime opportunity to tie the game. However, Gerety was picked off at second in a costly baserunning mistake, the second time this game a Northeastern player was caught on the base paths, giving the Phoenix a much needed second out before Brinker flew out to center to end the inning.
“We weren’t running in the eighth inning,” Glavine said. “I specifically went and said, ‘Hey, we’re not running here and we’re going to get a hit,’ and we got picked off, so you just got to learn from it.”
Despite taking his second loss this season, Rising went seven innings pitched and six strikeouts, allowing just three hits and three runs, all unearned. This was his longest outing in his short tenure as a Husky, and his longest collegiate start since Apr. 18, 2025 when he went eight and a third innings as a member of the RIT Tigers against Clarkson University.
“Overall, [I was] really happy with the way Luke pitched and gave us a chance to win again, pitching really well,” Glavine said.
Winebarger had arguably his best game as a member of the Phoenix, going eight innings with two earned runs and five hits.
Today’s loss marked the end of 18 straight CAA wins at home, with the last one coming from the Towson Tigers exactly one year ago to the day losing by the same score of 3-2 but in 11 innings.
Despite the up-and-down start to the season, the Huskies hold a 12-series CAA win streak, dating back to May 17, 2024.
Northeastern will look to extend that streak in the rubber game of the three-game set against Elon on Sunday. Max Schwartzberg and Mike Kaminsky will have the call at 11 a.m. on Sports+.
Daniel Ku is a third-year student at Northeastern University, covering Northeastern sports since 2024. Read all of his articles here.