BOSTON - The Northeastern University baseball team (25-9, 10-2 CAA) wraps up a lengthy home stand with five games at Friedman Diamond this week, hosting Kansas State (23-12, 10-5 Big 12) for a two-game midweek series, and the College of Charleston (21-13, 7-5 CAA) in a three-game weekend series beginning Friday afternoon. Both games in the Kansas State series, Tuesday April 15 and Wednesday April 16, will begin at 2 p.m., while the weekend series with Charleston begins at 2:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon, April 18. All five games can be seen on FloCollege, while Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday will be simulcast on NESN (Wed.) and NESN+ (Tue, Fri, Sat).
THREE THINGS TO KNOW:
1. SHUT 'EM DOWN, SHUT 'EM OUT
- Northeastern's defense has produced an NCAA-leading nine shutouts this season, including two this past weekend in the Hofstra series. Paced by a 3.74 ERA, the seventh-best in the nation, the Northeastern defense has locked down opposing lineups with just a .222 opponent batting average, and a 1.14 WHIP (2nd in the NCAA). The Husky pitching staff has walked the least amount of hitters in the country per nine innings (2.75). It's the most shutouts in a single season for Northeastern in program history, after recording seven shutouts three times (1986, 2016, 2023).Â
2. WELCOME BACKÂ WILDCATS
- For the second time in program history, and the second year in a row, the Huskies will host the Kansas State Wildcats at Friedman Diamond this Tuesday and Wednesday. It'll be just the third and fourth meetings all time between the two programs, with KState leading the all-time series 2-0 after an extra-innings thriller in Brookline last April. This year, the two teams will face off in back to back days at Friedman, before the 'Cats head back out to Kansas to face the Jayhawks in a three-game Big 12 set. KState's head coach Pete Hughes served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Northeastern from 1991-1996, during the playing career of Northeastern's head coach Mike Glavine, and Northeastern's community service initiative, '19 Ways', is based off of Hughes' creation of the same name in his first season as head coach of Manhattan College.Â
3. THE CHASE IS ON
- Heading into the fifth conference weekend of the CAA season, the Northeastern Huskies find themselves firmly in first place with a 10-2 record. The next-closest team in terms of conference winning % and overall winning % is Northeastern's next opponent, the Charleston Cougars at 7-5, and 21-13 overall. The Huskies and Cougars are deadlocked at a 5-5 record in their previous 10 meetings, with both teams winning their respective CAA weekend series at home in the last two seasons, 2-1. The Huskies had the upper hand in the most previous tournament meetings, as the two teams have faced off four times since 2021 in the CAA baseball tournament, with Northeastern going 4-0 in those contests. Northeastern has a 17-16 all-time record against the Cougs, with a 7-5 record at Friedman Diamond. Charleston has won three of the last five meetings.
