By Jake Sauberman, deputy sports editor
It is the third game of the series on a Sunday afternoon. With two hard-fought games in the books, the job of Northeastern University’s (NU) number three starter should not prove to be too big a challenge. The top of the first inning begins, and junior righthander Brian Christian goes to work.
With a 3.56 ERA over 48 innings, Christian has established himself as one of Northeastern’s top starters. But his Husky career hasn’t been as arrow-straight as his fastball.
Christian spent his freshman year as a struggling starter before transitioning to the bullpen, where he spent most of his sophomore season. After two rough seasons, he entered the 2017 season with a career 9.61 ERA and 6.95 strikeouts per nine innings.
“There was a big difference in my pitching mentality,” Christian said. “In my previous two years, I was always stressing about my outings, but this year I’m much more relaxed and comfortable.”
He also mentioned working on velocity over the offseason, adding 20 pounds to his frame. However, Christian’s blistering fastball hasn’t always been an asset. Head coach Mike Glavine credits his transition from a thrower to a pitcher as the key to Christian’s development.
“He embodies the prototypical college pitcher development,” Glavine said. “He got some innings and starts as a freshman. Sophomore year was a little bit of everything, but junior year is when he learned how to pitch. He’s become a complete pitcher, and when he first got [to Northeastern] he was a thrower.”
Christian agreed with Glavine’s assessment, and he noted how the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) competition humbled his early overconfidence.
“I thought I was a big hotshot coming out of high school, throwing harder than everyone else,” Christian said. “You try to take that here and prove to everybody that you’re the real deal, you throw 90-plus miles-per-hour and try to blow everybody away. But the reality of it is, the guys at this level can hit fastballs. It doesn’t matter how fast you throw, if you can’t throw to the right spot, you’re not going to get a good result. Learning to pitch and implementing better secondary stuff and starting to locate fastballs was a big piece of the puzzle.”
With refined accuracy on the mound, Christian has nearly halved his career walk rate while pushing his strikeout rate to 10.13 per nine innings. Lurking in the third spot in the rotation, his blazing fastball and high strikeout count electrifies otherwise grind-it-out Sunday affairs.
“I like the challenge,” Christian said of pitching on Sundays. “I like the pressure of it and being the guy that the team turns to for a big win.”
Despite having no control over the situation he gets thrown into, Christian keeps a calm approach to his role.
“As a Sunday guy you get to sit back and watch how the prior two games unfold and do whatever your team needs you to do for that game,” he said.
Christian was most recently tasked to close out a sweep against CAA leader College of Charleston. Firing seven strong innings and striking out six, he picked up the win to improve to a 5-0 record on the season.
It was a sweet moment of retribution for Christian and the rest of the pitching staff, who were the main reason for the early-season predictions of finishing seventh in the conference. After the team lost aces Aaron Civale and Dustin Hunt to major league organizations, CAA head coaches decided that the Huskies would not be able to keep up on the mound.
“Our own conference picked us to not even make the playoffs this year, which gave us a lot of motivation,” Christian said. “We lost [Civale and Hunt] to the draft, so they thought we wouldn’t be able to pitch this year. A lot of us pitchers took that to heart, and now we’re just doing what we know we’re capable of.”
Now, sitting atop the CAA standings, Christian doesn’t foresee the Huskies slowing down their recent successful ways.
“We’ve got a pretty light schedule in the next few weeks, so that series gave us a great opportunity to get on top and hopefully stay there for the second half,” he said.
The Huskies celebrated their successful weekend with a day at Fenway Park as part of the Beanpot consolation game. A native of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Christian is no stranger to the home of the Boston Red Sox.
“It’s always a day you look forward to,” Christian said. “Getting to play catch right in front of the Green Monster, getting your name announced over the speaker, playing on the Fenway grass, it’s a dream come true.”
With a successful first half officially in the rearview mirror, Christian and the Huskies will look to maintain their hold on the CAA throne heading into the tournament. If team chemistry is any indication, NU is in for a deep run.
“We’ve got a close-knit group of guys who care about each other a lot,” Christian said. “Everybody is super competitive, everybody wants to win. I think we’re just a really talented team on top of all the non-tangibles.”
Christian is both a key part of the clubhouse and exemplary of a model teammate, according to Glavine.
“He’s a hard worker,” he said. “He’s very coachable and he’s just fun to be around.”
