It isn’t every day that a 13-year-old kid from Massachusetts gets to take a trip to Australia for the holidays, much less get in a little baseball while he’s there.

Northeastern University righthander Wyatt Scotti had the chance to do both for two consecutive years over Christmas. The 6-3, 185-pound sophomore from Barnstable took part in the annual invitation-only Goodwill Series, a two-week experience filled with sightseeing and playing the game he loved.

Scotti had been a batboy for the Cotuit Kettleers, a team in the Cape Cod Baseball League. While there, he befriended fellow batboy Jake Berger, whose father recommended Wyatt be invited to play in the series. For two weeks, he learned a lot about baseball, stayed with a host family, and soaked in a culture from the other side of the world. 

“It was a really great experience,” Scotti recalled. 

“Obviously, getting to play baseball there was cool, but also just kind of being in Australia and getting to experience the culture and living with a host family… It was more than a baseball trip.”

It was certainly one of the best Christmas presents Scotti ever got, and it played a major role in shaping him into the pitcher he has become with the Huskies. He learned the important mental aspects of pitching, such as reading the swings of opposing batters and bouncing back from failure.

“It was probably one of the first times I got to play on a team that wasn’t just kids from my area growing up,” Scotti said. 

“I got to play with kids from other parts of the country and saw the level of competition that was out there.”

It was around the time Scotti went to Australia that he became serious about being a pitcher. He went on to be a four-year letterwinner at Saint Mark’s High School and was named team captain during his final season. He led his New England Senior Babe Ruth League team to the championship and was named Team MVP in 2019.

Scotti learned another important lesson while training at Cressey Sports Performance, a high-performance training facility: pitching is more than just throwing a baseball. He honed his mechanics and tapped into discovering his own individual style. On days when he pitches, Scotti is particular about throwing a certain number of minutes during warmups. It’s more than a typical superstition or a physical routine—it mentally prepares him for the game.

“It helps me stay focused and also gives me the extra boost of confidence on everything throughout the week,” he explained. 

“I think the mental part of the game is really important.”

When considering colleges, Scotti knew he wanted one that was close to his home and had a great mixture of baseball and academics. He knew Northeastern provided everything he was looking for when he attended one of their camps. 

Last season, he made the CAA All-Rookie Team as a freshman, allowing 39 hits and 16 earned runs while striking out 39 batters in 51.0 innings. He led the conference in walks allowed (10), was second in runs allowed (17), and third in ERA (2.82).

The Huskies were blessed with an experienced pitching staff in 2021, so Scotti didn’t see a lot of action early in the season. It allowed him to observe the collegiate game gradually without being thrown in right away, which played to his advantage when he began to pitch more regularly.

“Wyatt had a great fall for us,” Northeastern pitching coach Kevin Cobb said. 

“But early on, he probably didn’t get the opportunities he wanted just because we had some older guys returning that logged some serious innings for us. He started for us midweek early in the season and started giving us four or five quality innings there. Then we went to four games on the weekend in conference play. He kind of rolled from there.”

One of Scotti’s mentors last season was redshirt senior Kyle Murphy, who signed this past August with the Chicago Dogs of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. 

“He was a great leader of the whole pitching staff,” Scotti said. 

“He really made it a point to talk to the younger guys and give them feedback whenever we had questions about how the season worked or day-to-day activities.” 

The Huskies won 36 games in 2021, setting a single-season school record and capturing its first conference tournament championship before bowing out in the Fayetteville Regional. A big test for Scotti came in the CAA Championship Series. He pitched 7.0 innings in a 7-5 extra-inning victory over UNC Wilmington to force a winner-take-all championship game. He allowed two runs and seven hits while striking out four and allowing no walks.

Although he ended up with a no-decision, that performance did a lot to cement Scotti’s spot as a regular arm in the rotation going into 2022.

“Those early starts can go either way for young pitchers, and they’re so important,” Huskies head coach Mike Glavine said. 

“He took advantage of them and took the job away from everybody else and earned it. The biggest start, at least in my mind, was what he did in the tournament against Wilmington in an elimination situation. That was his best start because of the amount of pressure.”

The changeup has always been Scotti’s go-to pitch. But he worked on becoming a more complete pitcher after last season, learning to get both sides of the plate with his fastball and having better command on breaking balls in the zone.

“Going into this year, I wanted to work on my fastball command,” Scotti explained. 

“Once I was able to improve that, my other pitches followed along. It was a productive winter.” 

Scotti won his first five starts before suffering a 7-1 loss to College of Charleston March 27. In six starts, he’s compiled a 2.25 ERA and .98 WHIP. In 40.0 innings, he has given up 35 hits and 14 runs, walked four and struck out 33.

While many coaches start their best pitchers on Friday and Saturday, Glavine likes to save his for Sunday games. It’s a strategy he’s employed often over the years, and it has worked out well for Scotti so far.

“The team might not verbalize it, but they know having that guy on Sunday is going to give them a great chance,” explained Glavine, who is in his eighth season as Huskies head coach. 

“When you can have an ace on the mound on Sunday that can pound the strike zone and limit free bases, it’s a huge weapon. Wyatt has been that pitcher.”

If Scotti has a superstition (not counting the exact number of minutes to warm up), it would have something to do with Taylor Swift.

“I only listen to Taylor Swift on game day,” he explained. 

“It calms me. It’s relaxing and puts me in a good mental space where I’m focused but not in any way stressed out. It helps me be in the moment.”

Asked if Taylor knows about her contribution to his game-day routine, Scotti sighs heavily in a way that indicates he wished she did.

“No, Taylor doesn’t know about this,” he replied.

If he continues to have success, she just might find out sooner rather than later.