UConn baseball's successful island vacation
The Huskies are on a three-game win streak built off dominant offense
UConn baseball’s trip to Hawai’i this weekend might have counted as a makeshift vacation for the team, but the bats didn’t take any days off. The Huskies outscored their opponents 44-28 and outhit them 53-34 — easily the most runs per game they’ve scored in a series season up to this point in the season.
The Huskies lost the opening game of the series 8-4, but rallied to defeat Hawai’i in three successive games, winning 13-8 on Saturday, 18-10 on Sunday and 9-2 in the series finale on Monday.
Along with the usual suspects (Dominic Freeberger, Ben Huber, Jake Studley), shortstop Bryan Padilla stepped up and provided an offensive boost to help take the Huskies’ lineup to that next level.
Padilla went 9-for-18 on the weekend with two doubles, a triple, a home run and added four walks, earning Big East player of the week honors.
With the offense humming like it was, UConn’s pitching staff had some leeway with which to operate. Still, it took until the last game of the weekend for the unit to truly come together.
Ten days after undergoing a procedure at UConn Medical Center, Jack Sullivan threw five innings with just one earned run allowed to earn the win on Monday afternoon. Brown transfer Zach Fogell continued his streak of solid appearances in a UConn uniform, allowing just three earned runs in 7 1/3 innings so far this season after three shutout frames against the Rainbow Warriors.
UConn will take its improved offense on the road for the second leg of its spring break set of games, a four-game series against San Diego State. The Aztecs are 4-8 on the season, losing their opening five games before beating Hawai’i and North Dakota State in a tournament they hosted and taking two out of three from conference rivals UNLV on the road. They come in on a three-game skid after dropping the finale to the Rebels, along with a midweek battle against UC Riverside and the only game in a weather-impacted series with San Jose State.
San Diego State was picked to finish third in the Mountain West preseason behind San Jose State and UNLV, a year after finishing dead last in the conference with a 18-38 overall record.
The Huskies will have to be wary of outfielders Shaun Montoya and Cole Carrigg, both hitting over .340 on the year. Pitcher Jonny Guzman has been the best overall starter for the Aztecs, allowing zero runs through his first two starts (10 innings) before getting knocked around by UNLV.
First pitch for game one of the San Diego State series is at 9 p.m. on Thursday, March 16.
Love the work. One of the nice features in the email might be to throw out the RPIs now that they are available.