LAWRENCE, Kan. — After a 5-1 win against the Missouri State Bears in Saturday’s elimination game, the Northeastern Huskies found themselves in yet another win-or-go-home contest on Sunday, this time against the SEC tournament runner-ups, the Arkansas Razorbacks.
With both teams losing to the host Kansas Jayhawks — Northeastern in the opening round on Friday and Arkansas on Saturday — the winner would earn themselves a rematch against the regional hosts, needing to beat them twice to earn a spot in the Super Regionals.
But despite the stakes being higher than ever, with the Huskies’ season on the line, star slugger redshirt senior Harrison Feinberg was not listed in the lineup.
Feinberg, who holds Northeastern’s program record for career home runs (46), had been playing through a knee injury throughout the entirety of both the CAA and NCAA tournaments, but after too much wear-and-tear, he could not hold out to make it into the lineup on Sunday.
Taking the mound for Northeastern was freshman right-hander Cooper Maher, his second career start for the Huskies. Maher, originally pitching in relief at the beginning of the season, came into Sunday’s game with a 3.52 ERA and last pitched as a starter in the first of Northeastern’s two wins over Campbell to claim back-to-back CAA titles.
On the other side for Arkansas, junior righty Tate McGuire toed the slab. Used as an opener seven times throughout the season, McGuire last pitched against the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship game, but allowed five runs in just one inning pitched as Georgia claimed the SEC title in an 11-1 run-rule win.
Maher retired the first nine Razorbacks batters, but a throwing error by freshman third baseman Tyler Harmony got Arkansas their first baserunner of the day. After walking senior designated hitter Zack Stewart to load the bases with no outs, junior second baseman Nolan Souza lined a single into center field to put Arkansas up 2-0 in the top of the fourth inning. Redshirt junior first baseman Reese Robinett followed him up with a bloop single into shallow right field to extend the lead to three.
The Huskies responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the fourth inning, thanks to a fielding error by Souza that allowed junior center fielder Ryan Gerety to score.
However, Souza was able to redeem himself in the top of the fifth inning, collecting his third RBI of the day, this time to the left field side to give the Razorbacks a 4-1 lead.
Freshman righty Tom Mahoney came in relief for Maher in the top of the sixth frame, but a walk, a hit by pitch, and a fielding error loaded the bases for Arkansas with just one out. The Northeastern defense, however, was able to turn a clutch 4-6-3 double play to leave the Razorbacks scoreless and keep the deficit at three.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Northeastern’s bats came to life.
Senior designated hitter Matt Brinker smashed a 423-foot solo home run over the 16-foot-tall batter’s eye in center field to cut the lead in half. And after a walk by Aschettino and sophomore catcher Cooper Tarantino reaching on an error, sophomore Henry DiGiorgio stepped up to the plate.
It had been a rough postseason for the shortstop, entering the afternoon with no hits in his 9 NCAA tournament at-bats, striking out five times.
But with the bright lights on him in a do-or-die game, he came up clutch, lining a single into center field to bring the Huskies back within one at 4-3.
Sophomore Carter Bentley followed up DiGiorgio’s knock with a grounder that snuck through to left field, scoring Tarantino to tie the game at four and completing an unlikely rally from the Huskies’ eight and nine-hole hitters to swing the momentum back to Northeastern.
It would not sit with the club from Boston for long, though, as Souza continued to pile on to his stellar afternoon, driving a ball to the fans sitting outside the left field fence to put Arkansas up 6-4 in the top of the seventh. And after Mahoney allowed a single to senior center fielder Maika Niu, on the very next pitch, Robinett crushed a 435-foot home run to right-center field to double the Razorbacks’ lead to four.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Aschettino cut the deficit in half with a two-run home run of his own, just barely over the outstretched arm of Arkansas’ junior left fielder Damian Ruiz, pulling Northeastern back in contention.
After a scoreless inning from redshirt sophomore southpaw David McSweeney, the Huskies turned to graduate closer Andrew Wertz to keep the deficit at two.
Appearing in each of Northeastern’s last seven games, Wertz had his streak of scoreless appearances snapped in the opening round game against Kansas, his first runs allowed since March 17 against Merrimack. Two solo home runs from Stewart and Robinett pushed the lead back to four for Arkansas. With just three outs left, the Huskies’ chances to keep their season alive were looking grim.
Gerety led off the bottom of the ninth with an infield single, continuing his blistering pace in the tournament, but the Huskies would need more than just one baserunner to complete a late-game rally.
After an Aschettino walk put runners at first and second and one out, freshman second baseman Charlie Criscola reached on a 1-6 fielder’s choice that left Northeastern down to their last out. Needing a spark, Northeastern head coach Mike Glavine then turned to redshirt sophomore Will Fosberg as a pinch hitter with runners on second and third and the season on the line.
Entering the NCAA tournament with a .188 batting average, Fosberg had just one hit in his last eight plate appearances, with his only hit coming as a solo home run against Kansas in the opening round.
After fouling off five pitches and fighting through a 10-pitch at-bat, Fosberg had one of the most clutch moments of Northeastern’s season, lining a double into right field that cut Arkansas’ lead to just 10-8.
DiGiorgio continued his late-game successes, lining a single into left field that brought Fosberg home and the Huskies within just one. With Arkansas bringing in redshirt junior Cooper Dossett to close out the game and needing just one out, Bentley drew a five-pitch walk to flip the lineup back to the top of the order to Harmony.
With the potential tying run on second and the winning run on first, Harmony lifted the ball into left field. As it settled easily into Ruiz’s glove, Northeastern’s valiant effort of a rally finally came to a close, and so too did their season.
“Man, we were right there,” Glavine said. “[I’m] frustrated and angry, too. I usually don’t feel this way when a season ends… our guys are so freaking tough, competitive, resilient, and gritty. They just gave it everything they had.”
Coming into the 2026 season, Northeastern lost 90% of the previous season’s innings and 50% of last year’s at-bats due to graduation and the MLB Draft. In what was expected to be a rebuilding year, the Huskies returned to the NCAA Tournament as the CAA’s automatic qualifier and earned another tournament victory, just their second since the adoption of the current 64-team format in 1999.
“[Looking from] where we started to where we are right now, it probably has been the most rewarding year I’ve had as a head coach,” Glavine said. “We were 0-5, 1-6… we were searching, we were fighting, but we never gave up.”
Northeastern dropped the first five games of the season, getting outscored 65-24 and suffering three run-rule losses before picking up their first win against Grambling State in late February.
“It took us 36 games, where everything clicked, and from the rest of the season on, [the players] put it all together,” Glavine said. “It was such a rewarding year, and they’re an incredibly resilient group.”
As the Northeastern baseball season comes to an end, we thank you for tuning into WRBB’s coverage of all things Huskies sports throughout the entirety of the 2025-2026 academic year. Stay tuned for continuing coverage as Northeastern baseball will begin to transition to the 2027 season.
Daniel Ku is a rising fourth-year student at Northeastern University, covering Northeastern sports since 2024. Read all of his articles here, and find him on Twitter/X here.