Huskies' Regional streak ends at six
UConn will be missing out on the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017.
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Season in review
Season outlook — Remember when the Huskies lost seven of their first eight games to start the season? Remember when Florida Atlantic hung 25 runs on the board in a February game en route to a series sweep? Remember when the Huskies were nearly the victims of a perfect game at Northeastern in late March, going 8 1/3 innings without a baserunner before Sam Biller doubled to save the day?
UConn’s season took a long time to get off the ground. But it did. And when it did, the Huskies played pretty well, winning 13 straight at one point, with a 23-2 finish to the regular season. However, it wasn’t enough and they were left home.
Where do the Huskies go from here? — The Huskies’ NCAA Tournament hopes dried up after the selection committee determined a weak Big East and an underperformance against top-100 RPI teams did not warrant a bid. Notable players like Bryan Padilla, Caleb Shpur and pitchers like Ian Cooke and Brady Afthim are all graduating from the program.
Should recently-named Big East Player of the Year Ryan Daniels choose to stay in Storrs, the Huskies could return 3/4 of its infield alongside Tyler Minick and Rob Rispoli, who both collected all-Big East honors as well. Shpur, Beau Root and Sam Biller will also move on from the program, leaving the outfield a bit more of a mystery behind Aidan Dougherty. Oliver Pudvar headlines the list of names potentially returning, which gives UConn a strong chance to contain its core on both sides of the ball next year.
How will UConn navigate the transfer portal? — Everyone knows the drill by now. The transfer portal will open June 2 and the carousel of player movement will once again be underway. For the sake of it, let’s look back at some of the players UConn brought in ahead of this season to see how they graded out.
UConn enjoyed a healthy mix of contributions this season from the players finding a new home in Storrs. The Huskies took a flyer on Oliver Pudvar, who spent two seasons in the MAAC with Manhattan — the latter of which he missed entirely with injury. The lefty blossomed in 2025, shifting from a bullpen arm to a top-end starter, rewarding Penders with a 3.60 ERA, 6-1 record and 73 strikeouts across a team-high 70 innings pitched. He was without a doubt the team’s most reliable starter.
Here are some other notable Huskies who impacted the team positively in their first (and for some, only) year in Storrs.
Grant MacArthur (San Joaquin Delta): 54 games | .296/.446/.520 | 20 XBH
Sam Biller (Loyola Marymount): 58 games* | .296/.415/.563 | 13 HR, 60 RBI
Beau Root (Middlebury): 40 games | .341/.442/.504 | 42 hits
Greg Shaw III (Manhattan): 26 appearances* | 4.45 ERA | 54.1 IP, 43 K
* denotes that player led or tied for the team lead in that category
The transfer portal has turned college athletics into a bit of a free agent black market. It’s most prominent in football but baseball is no exception, with the highest bidder usually taking home the prized player. Guys who put up great seasons, with the likes of Daniels, Minick and Pudvar fitting that bill, will be targets for other competitive programs. It is up to head coach Jim Penders not only to find the next group of transfers to produce like the above did, but also to keep what is left of last year’s group together. With the portal set to open its doors June 2, only time will tell which way the pendulum swings.
NCAA Tournament
UConn played against 10 teams in the NCAA Tournament field in hosts No. 1 Vanderbilt, No. 5 North Carolina, and No. 15 UCLA. It also faced off with 2-seeds Duke and Northeastern (Tallahassee Regional), as well as 3-seeds Creighton (Fayetteville Regional), Miami (FL) (Hattiesburg Regional), Rhode Island (Baton Rouge Regional), Stetson (Auburn Regional) and USC (Corvallis Regional).
The Huskies were 8-11 against the field of 64.
Locally, CCSU (Auburn Regional), Fairfield (Conway Regional) and Holy Cross (Chapel Hill Regional) are the other New England teams playing in a Regional. Each are a 4-seed.
Thank you!
This wraps up the third season of the Hook C Baseball newsletter. We recently reached the 500-subscriber mark and we’d like to thank you for reading, sharing and subscribing, plus all the interaction we got on Twitter this year, particularly down the stretch.
Obviously, this is a bit different in years past, as Shawn is moving on and retiring from The UConn Blog and associated sites, but watch this space for any news around the MLB Draft in July, schedule release in the fall and obviously the preview content that the crew will churn out in February.
On a personal level, this is the final piece of content I’ll publish and while I wrote more than 1,100 words on The UConn Blog on Tuesday, I wanted to thank everyone again for all the support over the past nine-and-a-half years. It’s meant a whole ton to me and I never thought this many people would care about what I had to say about anything, so thank you for listening to me both here, on the blog and Twitter. See you on the Internet!
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Thanks Shawn enjoyed your input and keeping us updated on the Hook C season.
It's clear the state of college baseball has now entered the dark side of collegent athletics. Hopefully coach Penders and the staff/program can navigate through this challenging landscape and keep the Huskies program competitive and productive as we move forward.
GO HUSKIES!!