File photo/The Daily Campus
The UConn softball team is back in action Wednesday when they take on Bethune-Cookman University before they begin conference play against UCF on Friday.
The Huskies are coming off a great weekend where they won four out of the five games in the Mercer Bears Classic, scoring a total of 24 runs while only giving up 3. Their only loss came against Cleveland State University, when they ultimately lost an extra innings pitcher’s duel 1-0 in the eighth.
As a result, the Huskies improved their record to 8-13 on the season. However, UConn is still the only team in the American who has a record under .500, and they have seven less wins than the next worst team, Memphis.
The Bethune-Cookman Wildcats, members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, are just 9-21 this season. They are led by junior Jacki Smith, who’s .310 average is the best on the team. Not only that, but Smith is 11-15 on stolen bases this season, easily holding the team lead. Behind her is Kaiya Epps-Lee, who is second on the team with a .259 average and leads the team with 13 RBIs.
The Huskies will have a day off after their one game vs. Bethune-Cookman and then begin a three-game series with the UCF Knights on Friday. The Knights, who are 19-9 so far this season, are the Huskies’ first in-conference opponent of the season.
They are led redshirt junior Tamesha Glover, who leads the team with a .372 average and is the only person on the team with an OPS of over 1.000. She also leads the team in home runs with three and total bases with 50, a whopping 18 more than the next person.
The Knights also boast a pair of lights-out pitchers, as Breanna Vasquez and Alea White have ERAs of 1.37 and 1.69 respectively through a combined 174 innings pitched.
This will be the Huskies’ last series away before they finally get to play their first game on their home field, hosting the UMass-Lowell River Hawks on Wednesday, March 27, before shipping right back out to Wichita to take on the Shockers in a three-game set.
Jorge Eckardt is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at jorge.eckardt@uconn.edu.
