The Huskies take on Memphis again at J.O. Christian Field on a beautiful Sunday morning. The Huskies ended up sweeping Memphis this weekend 3-0 with a final win 4-0. (File Photo/The Daily Campus)
The UConn baseball team bounced back from a tough series loss over the weekend to USF with a convincing 4-0 win over Boston College on Tuesday. Jeff Kersten picked up his first win of the season in dominant fashion, going 8.2 strong without allowing a run.
It is the 12th win of the season for UConn (12-9), but more notably, it is the 500th career victory for head coach Jim Penders, second-most in program history. Penders, currently in his 15th season as head coach, is 500-354-4 all-time, all with UConn.
Entering Tuesday’s game, starter Jeff Kersten had only pitched a total of 17 innings across six appearances. But on Tuesday, he was nearly-unhittable, hurling 8.2 shutout innings, allowing only two hits for his first career win. He retired 15 batters in a row before walking a pair in the ninth, where P.J. Poulin closed the door on the Eagles (9-13) for a one-out save.
The offense didn’t have to do much but still had a good day at the plate, recording 11 hits on the afternoon. It was a scoreless tie through five until Anthony Prato and Zac Susi got things going in the sixth with back-to-back singles. As he’s done all year, Isaac Feldstein took care of the rest, knocking home Prato to take a 1-0 lead for his team-leading 20th RBI of the year.
A couple batters later, Christian Fedko made it 2-0 on a sacrifice fly. A strong throw from the BC left fielder made it a close play at the plate, but Susi beat the tag and slid in safely.
Later, the Huskies got a pair of insurance runs in the ninth, thanks to some shaky pitching and defense from the Eagles. Fedko drew a walk to start things off and was then replaced by pinch runner Conor Moriarty. A wild pitch, a walk and a throwing error later, Moriarty came around to score. Shortly after, Prato came through with a sac fly for his eighth RBI of the season, giving UConn a 4-0 lead that they would not relinquish.
Next up for the Huskies—fingers-crossed—is their long-awaited home opener. They’ll take on Hartford on Thursday at 3 p.m. at J.O. Christian Field.
Andrew Morrison is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at andrew.morrison@uconn.edu. He tweets at @asmor24.