Paul Tammaro's stupendous Sunday
The shortstop nearly single-handedly delivered his team a much-needed win over St. John's.
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Paul Tammaro had a Sunday for the ages
Nine RBIs is nothing to sneeze at. The best offensive teams won’t average nine runs a game, let alone scoring plays without an RBI attached to them. Paul Tammaro came within one of tying the UConn record on Sunday at a time when his team needed it.
After a tough non-conference schedule and record, the Huskies need to rack up plenty of wins in Big East play to ensure a sixth consecutive NCAA Tournamend bid, whether by winning the automatic bid or by climbing back into the at-large picture. A Quad 3 series loss to St. John’s is not part of that plan.
Enter the 6-foot graduate student from Rivervale, New Jersey. He was 4-for-6 on Sunday with a pair of three-home runs. Each came in the later innings and were crucial to victory.
Even in his hitless at-bats, the shortstop still made an impact offensively and was the key to a big win, as UConn had now won six of its last eight. In the first, Tammaro worked the count full before flying out to center field, before he flexed his offensive skillset.
In the fourth, he cut his team’s deficit to one when he fought off an 0-2 inside fastball and fisted it into right field to plate a pair, putting another runner on third, which scored when he took off for second base. Deep in the count again, he singled home another runner on a 2-2 count in the sixth, setting the stage for the power show.
He stepped to the plate with two down in the seventh and Jake Studley standing on third, with Caleb Shpur on second. On the first pitch of the at-bat, he took an outside pitch that didn’t quite get outside enough and deposited it over the 380-foot sign in left-center field for UConn’s first lead of the rubber game.
After St. John’s responded with a solo shot of its own, Tammaro was again at the plate with two on and two down. He took the first pitch for a ball, then got a middle-middle fastball. It looked like Garrett Scavalli was going to be able to scale the wall and rob the potential walk-off homer, but it was just out of his grasp and the Huskies had the victory.
UConn needed to keep its positive momentum going and take another Big East series, with a road opportunity at conference leader Georgetown coming up this weekend. Tammaro was a big reason why the Huskies were able to do so.
RPI Update
At this time last week, UConn baseball was at No. 81 in the RPI, which is well away from at-large consideration for an NCAA Tournament bid. Then the Huskies won a series against top-100 foe St. John’s, followed by split in the midweek against Kansas State and Boston College, leading to a No. 54 ranking.
Unlike most years, when the Big East is ranked in the teens out of the 30 conferences in RPI, the league is battling for top-five billing, as the Big East, Big Ten and Pac-12 are separated by less than two-thousandths of a point as they form a tier behind the top four of ACC, Big 12, SEC and Sun Belt. This gives UConn much more cushion than usual, as the RPI anchors that typically litter the conference slate aren’t as frequent. Five of the league’s teams are in the top 100 and there are no sub-200 teams.
A Quad 1 series against Georgetown looms this weekend, with only five Quad 4 contests remaining. They happen to come in a row following the trip to Virginia to face the Hoyas and they’re all at home. The Huskies have 19 games remaining and will feature four Quad 1, four Quad 2 and six Quad 3 contests, using current RPI rankings.
Bracketology
Baseball America
UConn is back into Baseball America’s field as the Big East’s automatic bid. The Huskies are in No. 9 Virginia’s Charlottesville Regional as the 3-seed, along with 2-seed West Virginia and 4-seed Sacred Heart. It’s paired with the Corvallis Regional, hosted by No. 9 Oregon State. It features 2-seed UC Santa Barbara, 3-seed Portland and 4-seed Fresno State.
Creighton, which is the 3-seed in the Knoxville Regional, along with No. 6 Tennessee, NC State and Bryant, is the other Big East representative, while Georgetown is among the next four out. The Bluejays and Gauchos are the only weekend series foes in the field, but Bryant (4-seed), Columbia (4-seed), No. 14 Indiana State, Kansas State (3-seed), Northeastern (3-seed) and UC Irvine (2-seed) are projected to keep their seasons going.
D1Baseball
UConn was briefly discussed on the NerdCast as retaking the automatic bid, but were ultimately dismissed in favor of Georgetown due to its losing record prior to the win over Kansas State. The Hoyas are the 4-seed in No. 10 Virginia’s Charlottesville Regional, joining 2-seed Alabama and 3-seed Utah. The Big East is projected to be a two-bid league, as Creighton is the 3-seed in the Stillwater Regional, with hosting duties going to No. 13 Oklahoma State. The regional is filled out with 2-seed Dallas Baptist and 4-seed Grand Canyon.
Along with Creighton, Rutgers, which is the 3-seed in No. 16 West Virginia’s Morgantown Regional, and 2-seed UC Santa Barbara (Corvallis Regional) are the weekend opponents in the field. Single-game squads include Boston College (3-seed), Bryant (4-seed), Columbia (4-seed), No. 12 Indiana State, Kansas State (3-seed), Northeastern (2-seed) and UC Irvine (2-seed). St. John’s is also the fourth team out.
The Week Ahead
Friday: Georgetown; 6 p.m.; FloSports
Saturday: Georgetown; 4 p.m.; FloSports
Sunday: Georgetown; 1 p.m.; FloSports
Tuesday: UMass; 6:05 p.m.; UConn+
Wednesday: Hofstra; 3:35 p.m.; UConn+
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