In its first-ever Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament game, the Northeastern baseball team did something they hadn’t done all season.

They committed five errors.

The Huskies lost the first-round game 10-3 to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). In his worst outing of the season, junior ace Adam Ottavino allowed seven runs, three earned, on 10 hits. He walked three and struck out six in his seven innings of work.

“It just wasn’t our day as a team,” Ottavino said. “I wasn’t as sharp as normal. But you have to give credit to the other team. They forced us to make plays and they took me out of my game a little.”

Freshman Jeff Thomson came in to relieve Ottavino, allowing three more earned runs in the ninth inning.

Senior Chris Emanuele led off the game with a double to left-centerfield and scored on a single by freshman Mike Tamsin. Senior Jeff Maher grounded into a double play, scoring junior Dan Milano, who reached base on a walk.

Two errors in the second inning gave VCU four more runs. They added one more run in the fourth before Milano homered in the bottom of the inning, cutting the lead to 6-3.

But it was the last run the Huskies would score, as the Rams won 10-3.

The loss sent the Huskies up against top-seeded James Madison the next day. Junior Dave Pellegrine got the start for Northeastern. He pitched a complete game giving up five runs on eight hits, striking out a career-high 10 batters. However the Dukes shut out the Huskies, eliminating them from the tournament.

“I felt good on the mound,” Pellegrine said. “I just tried to keep the game as close as possible.”

The Huskies tallied 11 hits, but left 10 men on base in the 5-0 loss.

Northeastern finished its first CAA season with a 27-23 overall record, 19-10 CAA.

“This season was definitely a success,” Ottavino said. “We didn’t know what to expect coming in but we had some great weekends, sweeping William ‘ Mary and playing Old Dominion really tough.”

Before the season started Northeastern was projected to finish 10th out of the 11 teams in the CAA, but surprised everyone by finishing in third place.

“It was a great season and we know that we gained a lot of respect this year,” Pellegrine said. “We finished third and those southern schools really respect us now.”