The Story Of The Year In NCAA D1 Baseball Is The Norfolk State University Spartans

If you tune into NCAA college baseball games on TV, you might see one of the following 20 or so teams playing:

These twenty NCAA Division 1 baseball teams are consistent and proven programs that finish at or in the Top 20 rankings year after year. Most if not all of them will end up in some sort of end of the season regional on their way to Omaha, Nebraska and the NCAA National Championship game. Teams like Virginia, UCLA, Florida, Arkansas, Texas A&M all have incredible facilities, powerful boosters, legendary fields, legendary coaches, and enough clout to recruit not only the top high school players, but the top eligible college players from other schools through the transfer portal. With all due respect to the above teams, their programs, their schools, and their players, there is one team that is not listed above that, in my opinion, is the story of the year in NCAA Division 1 Baseball – the Norfolk State University Spartans.

In the business world, analysts measure success with a metric labeled YOY or year over year. Analysts will look at a particular aspect of a company, like sales or repeat customers, and take a look at a particular month and compare it to a current month to track growth or decline. In Norfolk State University (NSU), you have a baseball team that went 4-38 in 2025. I went to several games last season and watched an exciting team struggle each game to get into the win column. Despite outstanding individual performances, a lot of energy on the field, and great fans, the NSU Spartans just couldn’t consistently tie in pitching, hitting, fielding, and baseball intangibles to get it going. Of the 42 games played, the NSU Spartans managed just 4 victories, all coming in NEC Conference play. 4-26 in the NEC, 4-38 overall.

The story of the 2026 NSU Baseball Spartan season starts with their record. As of this morning, April 19, the NSU Spartans sit at 14-21 overall. In the NEC Conference, the Spartans hold an impressive 11-9 record. With roughly 17 games left to play in the 2026 season, the NSU Spartans are well on their way to a highly successful season YOY outcome. In fact, if I was an analyst looking over the NSU Spartans YOY, I would be absolutely ecstatic with what I was seeing. I have been to a few games this Spring (with more to come) and am so excited for the players, the coaches, their families to see the Spartans on the positive side of the scoreboard as opposed to being down. Baseball has a mental side of it and losing is no fun, I don’t care if you are playing Little League or Division 1. Winning games is validation for hard work, maybe change management, and is just so uplifting for everyone in the stands and on the field.

So, what can the NSU Spartans point to for their incredible YOY success on the baseball diamond? I went onto the NSU Spartan Baseball website and looked at some of their stats YOY to see if I could find the answers. Here is what I found. 2025 team batting average was .268. 2026 team batting average (to date) is .271. Opponents batting average in 2025 was .326. This year it is .330. The NSU pitching staff as a whole had a team ERA of 9.83 in 2025. This season’s staff sits at 8.00. The 2025 NSU Spartans, as a team, committed 86 errors in 42 games. This season’s players have committed 57 errors in 35 games. The 2025 NSU pitching staff recorded 351 strikeouts, a rate of 8K’s per game. This season’s staff has struck out opponents 241 times, a rate of just under 7K’s per game. The 2025 NSU pitchers walked 346 batters, a rate of 8BB’s per game. The 2026 NSU staff sits at 204 walks, a rate of just under 6 per game. Anything standing out to you???

Norfolk State University Baseball does have a new Head Coach, ML Morgan. And a few new Assistant Coaches in Tag Montague and Brad Stephenson. Brett Mays is a carry over from the 2025 season. Marty Miller Field, home of the NSU Baseball Spartans, is essentially the same field, same dimensions, same bleachers, same dugouts, same bullpen, some location on campus. The wind, from the 7 or 8 games I have attended, typically blows out to right field, and sometimes with some pretty good pace. How about opponents YOY, is NSU playing different teams season to season? Nope, pretty similar schedule from 2025 to 2026 in terms of opponents both home and away. The results, however, are very different YOY against certain opponents.

2025 season – Coppin State lost 3 games. 2026 vs. Coppin State won 2 games, lost 1. 2025 vs. Central Connecticut State won 1 game, lost 2. 2026 vs. CConn – won 2 games, lost 1. 2025 vs. Mercyhurst, lost 3 games. 2026 NSU went 2-1 over Mercyhurst. 2025 vs. Delaware State University, lost 3 games. In 2026, the NSU Spartans swept the series with DSU winning all 3 games. Small sample but for these NSU opponents, the YOY improvement is outstanding. 2025 record vs. these very good baseball programs – 1 win, 11 losses. The 2026 NSU Spartans posted an incredible 9-3 record against the likes of Coppin State, Mercyhurst, Delaware State and Central Connecticut State. Awesome.

I am fairly confident that some baseball analyst out there or perhaps at Norfolk State University could amass some more numbers and stats to support the success YOY of the 2026 baseball program. Is the new leadership from HC Morgan and some of his new assistants moving the needle? Is it the new crop of Spartan players injecting the team with some much needed energy on the basepaths or in the field? Is it veteran leadership shining through from players like #2 Justin Journette, who keeps hitting home runs at a record pace while solidifying the right field corner of Marty Miller Field? Is the pitching, is it timely hitting, is it a better approach at the plate, is it the pitch sequences by the NSU catchers? Or is it just their time to shine and they have taken full advantage of everything I stated and then some? Whatever it is, whatever combination, the 2026 Norfolk State University Spartans Baseball team is, in my opinion, the story of the year in NCAA Division 1 baseball. Care to debate?

Go Spartans!!!