UConn's season ends in NCAA Regionals
The Huskies finished third in Gainesville.
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UConn falls in the Gainesville Regional
UConn baseball made a fifth straight NCAA Tournament, selected to the Gainesville Regional hosted by No. 2 Florida. The Huskies were unable to rebound from a tournament-opening defeat against Texas Tech and were eliminated by the Gators with a 1-2 record that was good for a third-place finish.
Jim Penders’ high-powered offense did what it needed to do against Florida A&M, but a pair of likely first-round picks in Mason Molina of Texas Tech and Florida’s Hutson Waldrep shut UConn down. They looked like the best arms the Husky lineup went up against all season.
A crafty left-hander, Molina didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning in the tournament opener, while Waldrep struck out a dozen, many with his nasty splitter. UConn mustered just two runs on three hits against the Red Raiders, and another pair of runs on eight hits against Florida.
The weekend was competitive, despite the losses. A vaunted Texas Tech offense scored just three runs against a combination of Stephen Quigley and Zach Fogell, who combined for eight innings of clutch pitching. The Huskies also kept Florida largely in check, aside from one inning in which their pitcher took a 107 mph line drive off the leg and needed to be removed. Ben Huber also closed out his UConn career with a 3-for-4 performance in pursuit of a professional opportunity.
Two weekend starters in Ian Cooke and Andrew Sears missed the tournament with injury and illness, respectively, which limited the Huskies’ ceiling, but making a fifth straight Regional is a great achievement that should be looked back on fondly.
NCAA Tournament Report
None of the other seven schools with UConn and local connections moved on to Super Regionals and had varying degrees of success over the weekend.
The Huskies played regular-season games against four teams in the field: Boston College, CCSU, Northeastern, and Xavier, with a record of 5-5. Maine, Penn, and Rider round out the regional programs in the field of 64.
Boston College and Xavier each made their regional finals after losing their opening games but were unable to force a winner-take-all Game 7, falling in the first game to No. 16 Alabama and Oregon, respectively. CCSU and Northeastern each went 0-2, doing so in the Columbia and Winston-Salem regionals, respectively. As 4-seeds, Penn and Rider each took a game off the regional hosts and the Quakers went all the way to Game 7, succumbing to Southern Miss in the Auburn Regional. Maine also went down in two games in the Coral Gables Regional.
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