BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Northeastern Huskies (1-5) picked up their first win of the 2026 season on Friday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium, holding off Grambling State (3-6) 4-1 in the first-ever meeting between the two programs. Robbie O'Connor earned the win with five solid innings, and the Huskies ran wild on the basepaths to manufacture all four of their runs.

It was the strongest pitching performance of the season so far for NU, with O'Connor, Joseph Hauser, Nick Coniglio, and Ryan Griffin combining to allow just two hits across nine innings against the Tigers.

• Northeastern struck first in the bottom of the first. Ryan Gerety singled up the middle, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error, and came around to score on a Carter Bentley double down the right field line. Bentley then stole third, and Eric Cha followed with an RBI single up the middle to make it 2-0.
• The second inning presented another threat, as Henry DiGiorgio drew a walk and Carmelo Musacchia was hit by a pitch, with both immediately stealing a base to put runners on second and third. Feinberg drew a walk to load the bases, but a strikeout and a double play ended the frame.
• O'Connor settled in nicely after a shaky NU debut, working five innings and allowing just one hit while striking out four. He was touched up for a run in the sixth after exiting before Joseph Hauser came on and struck out two of the three batters he faced to preserve the lead.
• Northeastern answered in the bottom of the sixth, with DiGiorgio working a walk and reaching third on a failed pickoff attempt. Musacchia singled to right to bring him to the plate, and Harrison Feinberg's sacrifice fly to left plated DiGiorgio for the 3-1 lead.
• The Huskies added an insurance run in the eighth. Chris Walsh was hit by a pitch and DiGiorgio reached on a fielder's choice, and the pair stole second and third in tandem. Musacchia then lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Walsh and push the lead to 4-1.
• Hauser followed O'Connor with two perfect innings, striking out three, before Coniglio worked a clean eighth and Griffin closed out the ninth for his first career save.
• Gerety and Cha led the offense, each going 2-for-4 with a run scored for Gerety and an RBI for Cha. Bentley went 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI, and Musacchia finished 1-for-2 with a sacrifice fly and two steals.
• The Huskies swiped 10 bases on the afternoon as a team, with Musacchia, Feinberg, Gerety, Bentley, Cha, Brinker, Walsh, and DiGiorgio each recording at least one stolen base. It was the first 10+ steal effort of the season, and the first since March 7, 2025, when the Huskies went a perfect 11-for-11 in stolen bases against San Diego State.

Northeastern continues its Baton Rouge weekend on Saturday, February 28th with a 2 p.m. CT first pitch against #2 LSU at Alex Box Stadium.