UConn baseball split their opening series against Ohio State. What can the Huskies learn?
The Huskies' first four-game set of the season didn't go to plan.
UConn baseball had a mixed bag of a series against Ohio State to start the season. 9-6 and 8-6 wins on Saturday and Sunday looked like classic Husky wins, featuring a lineup that can put up numbers no matter who’s at bat.
But while the 3-0 loss to start the weekend can possibly be chalked up to early season jitters in the lineup that didn’t carry over into the next two games, UConn’s 10-5 loss on Monday to end the series put some first-weekend issues under the spotlight. The Huskies’ bullpen gave up five runs in the fifth inning to put the game out of reach, and it was an issue that showed up all weekend.
Including the wins on Saturday and Sunday, UConn’s bullpen gave up 15 runs in 14 innings of work. A 9.64 ERA leaves plenty of room for improvement, which will come with time as pitching coach Josh MacDonald is able to find the best fit for many new pieces.
“We’re learning things, we’re learning who can do it in the moment and who’s gonna have to wait to be down three or up three… to get in there,” head coach Jim Penders said.
The other area UConn struggled in over the weekend was their approach at the plate. Husky hitters struck out 42 times in 161 plate appearances, or 26.1 percent. To put that in perspective, the Huskies struck out in just 17.6 percent of plate appearances in 2022 and 18.1 percent in 2021.
“Systemically, you have to analyze the weekend, and we struck out way too much,” head coach Jim Penders said after the game. “We chased a lot of balls out of the zone, we were passive in some hitters’ counts. That’s gotta be better, that’s not who we are.”
The coaching staff will continue to work on re-configuring the bullpen and hope to cut out strikeouts this weekend in Berkeley, California, where the Huskies face Cal Poly on Friday night and Cal in a two-game set on Saturday and Sunday as part of the Cal Baseball Classic.
Highlights
Wheaton College transfer Jake Studley had the best weekend at the plate out of any Husky, going 5-for-13 with a triple and four runs scored out of the bottom of the lineup.
Ben Huber might not have had the best weekend overall (3-for-18), but his 2023 home run campaign got off to a hot start, with two homers in four games.
Hartford transfer Will Nowak pitched well in his relief appearance, throwing 2 2/3 no-hit innings with five strikeouts.
The uniforms might as well be a perpetual highlight, but we’ll post them here anyways
Lowlights
The Huskies might have taken a big step forward this offseason, announcing that all home games will be broadcast for free on the new UConn+ streaming service, but unfortunately, road Big East series will still be on FloSports.
This weekend’s broadcast was as egregious as ever, running the gamut from a purple-colored UConn section of the scoreboard, to whatever the “U-Conn University” is. For the cherry on top, the broadcasts all weekend didn’t feature an announce team, and often didn’t have audio from the game at all.
Accessibility of college baseball broadcasts has come a long way in the last 10 years, but until that renaissance reaches the Hook C, we’re all better off listening to Chris Jones broadcasting on Mixlr.