UConn baseball will not return to home play this weekend as anticipated and will instead play a weekend series at Seton Hall. (Jackson Haigis/The Daily Campus)
The UConn baseball team was scheduled to play its first home games of the season this weekend. The Huskies were preparing to welcome Seton Hall to J.O. Christian Field on Friday afternoon for a three-game series.
However, on Wednesday the decision was made to move the games to Seton Hall due to unplayable field conditions in Storrs. The Huskies are 35-46 all-time against their old Big East foes.
This weekend will be UConn’s last nonconference series of the year. Next week the Huskies will play two midweek games before conference play begins next weekend. UConn went 12-11 in the games before the first conference game last season.
UConn (10-8) will head to New Jersey coming off a 7-5 win over Central Connecticut on Tuesday in which Isaac Feldstein hit a two-run game-winning single in the ninth inning. The Huskies used eight different pitchers in the game.
Tim Cate is the probable starter for Friday’s game. Cate returned to the mound last week against BYU for the first time since Feb. 24 and pitched five innings, allowing six hits and three earned runs with one strikeout. The sophomore will look to continue returning to last year’s form, when he won American Athletic Conference Rookie Pitcher of the Year with a 5-1 record and 2.73 ERA.
Wills Montgomerie will take the mound on Saturday to try to build on his impressive 4-0 start to the season. Montgomerie ranks third in Division I with 52 strikeouts. Mason Feole (2-0) will pitch the final game of the series on Sunday afternoon.
Seton Hall (10-8) is coming into the weekend on a three-game win streak. The Pirates have won seven of their last nine games, with the only losses coming at No. 11 Florida.
The Pirates are led by junior Ryan Ramiz and senior Joe Poduslenko, both batting .300 or better and leading the team in runs with 11 and 15, respectively.
Starting on the mound for Seton Hall will likely be Zach Prendergast (3-0), Cullen Dana (0-2) and Shane McCarthy (1-3). Prendergast leads the Pirates in wins, ERA and WHIP, while Dana has the most strikeouts on the team with double the amount of any other pitcher (32).
The Pirates’ pitchers will look to slow down UConn shortstop Anthony Prato and catcher Zac Susi. Prato leads the team with a .362 batting average and Susi isn’t far behind at .343. Feldstein, Tuesday’s hero, is also batting .319 and each of the three players has recorded at least 23 hits. Overall, the Huskies have scored 7.8 runs per game over their last 10 games.
Friday’s game will be played at 3 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. All games will be played at Owen T. Carroll Field in South Orange, New Jersey.
Josh Buser is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at joshua.buser@uconn.edu.
