1921-1940  |  1941-1960  |  1961-1980  |  1981-2000  |  2001-2015

As the Northeastern baseball team prepares for its 95th all-time season this coming spring, take a stroll back through time and join the Huskies as the program reflects on 95 years of history on the baseball diamond. During the week of Jan. 12, "Ninety-five years of Northeastern baseball" will highlight a 20-year period of NU baseball history, beginning Monday with its inaugural season in 1921, and ending Friday with the upcoming 2015 campaign.

BOSTON – After hoisting two conference championships during the 1990s, the Northeastern baseball team entered the new millennium as annual contenders in the America East. A two-time recipient of the league's Coach of the Year award, NU skipper Neil McPhee ensured that the Huskies would stay focused during the worldwide Y2K commotion, and carry over their perennial success into the early 2000s.
 
Northeastern started the 2001 campaign in Bradenton, Florida, by sandwiching a 14-run showing against Bowling Green and a 10-5 victory against Stony Brook around an 11-4 loss to Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Future major-league catcher Luke Carlin stole a team-high 13 bases and hit .315 for the Huskies during the year, and led both statistical categories again the following year with 17 stolen bags and a .364 average. After guiding NU to a 29-22 record in 2002, Carlin was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 10th round of the MLB Draft, and made his major-league debut six years later with the San Diego Padres.
 
Having compiled a winning record in 13 of his first 17 seasons as head coach, McPhee managed to keep the Huskies above a .500 winning percentage again in 2003, directing the team to a 27-24 record. Locked in a regular-season race for the final spot in the America East tournament, Northeastern won back-to-back doubleheaders against Binghamton and scooted into the postseason ranked No. 4 in the conference.
 
Pitted against regular-season champion Vermont in the first round, NU rallied around pitcher Justin Hedrick (2002-04), who threw a three-hit complete game against the Catamounts to send the Huskies to the league semifinals in 2-1 fashion. Hedrick, a sixth-round draft pick by the San Francisco Giants in 2004, fanned 89 hitters during the 2003 season, temporarily taking the team-lead in strikeouts away from teammate Jordan Thomson (2001-04). Thomson, who shares the Northeastern record for career wins (24) with Donald Eason (1952-55), also threw a three-hit complete game shutout against Stony Brook during the second championship game, helping NU claim its third America East crown with an 11-0 victory against the Seawolves. Northeastern would score eight runs in a loss against No. 2 LSU in the first round of the NCAA tournament before suffering a 12-6 setback to UNCW.
 
The Huskies would close out their time in the America East with back-to-back regular-season titles in 2004 and 2005, but managed to win just one game overall in both postseason tournaments. McPhee's squad made the transition to CAA baseball in 2006 and took the conference by storm, winning 19 games and finishing third in the final standings. On April 7, Adam Ottavino (2004-06) tossed the first NU no-hitter at home in ten years, as the junior led the Huskies to a 2-0 win against the visiting Dukes of James Madison. At the end of the season, Ottavino was scooped up by the St. Louis Cardinals with the 30th overall pick in the MLB Draft, and currently plays for the Colorado Rockies. During his time on Huntington Avenue, the NU star pitched a record-breaking 290 career strikeouts, including 120 strikeouts in 2006.
 
After winning its third Beanpot championship in 2002, Northeastern reclaimed local bragging rights in the 2007 tournament as the Huskies defeated Massachusetts, 17-6, and Boston College, 2-0, to become Boston's top collegiate team. Ousted by the Eagles in the 2008 first round, NU returned to the Beanpot final in 2009, and clinched its second championship in two seasons with a 5-3 victory against the Minutemen. A four-time Northeastern batting champion, Mike Tamsin (2006-09) hit an RBI single in the third inning and scored three batters later, helping NU jump out to a quick 3-0 lead on UMass. The Huskies would drop a 9-5 decision to Boston College in the 2010 final, but would secure their sixth and most recent championship, second most among Beanpot competiting programs, in the spring of 2013.
 
Entering his 23rd season as Northeastern's head coach prior to the start of the 2009 campaign, McPhee was determined to rebuild the power-hitting lineup he once had in the 1990s. With offensive additions like Frank Pessanello (2007-09), McPhee and the Huskies won 28 games in 2009, and finished with a winning record in CAA play for the first time in three seasons. Following a 14-0 loss to the Boston Red Sox in an exhibition game, NU was off to its best start since 1997, winning seven straight games against Northwestern, Duquesne, Fairfield, and Central Michigan. After smacking a single-season program-record 20 home runs the previous year, Pessanello belted 13 long balls in 2009, driving in a team-best 51 RBIs.
 
In the year 2013, the Huskies surpassed the 30-win mark for just the fourth time in program history, as McPhee coached NU to a 31-26 overall record. As a No. 5 seed, Northeastern won its first CAA tournament game, advancing as far as the semifinals in the double-elimination tournament before being outmatched by William & Mary. After announcing his retirement as the Huskies' head coach before the 2014 season, McPhee guided Northeastern for the 29th time through a challenging league schedule, and stepped away from the program with a 26-29 overall record.
 
A program known well throughout the years for bringing back its own alumni, former Huskies star Mike Glavine became Northeastern's new head coach in 2014 after previously serving as McPhee's assistant coach for eight seasons. With a talented 35-man roster that is filled in 2015 with talented hitters, pitching aces, and defensive gloves, Glavine and the Huskies will begin writing the ninety-fifth chapter of the Northeastern baseball history book this coming spring. 


2001-2015 STATISTICS

Largest win: 20-2 vs. Fairleigh Dickinson (2002)
Largest defeat: 9-26 vs. George Mason (2008)
Most combined runs in a game: 35 (L, 9-26 vs. George Mason, 2008)
Record during the 2000s: 258-241-1 (.517)
Record during the 2010s: 111-147 (.430)
Highest single-season winning percentage: .583 (28-20, 2004)
Lowest single-season winning percentage: .295 (13-31, 2010)
Longest single-season winning streak: 11 (2004)
Longest overall winning streak: 11 (2004)