UConn softball looks to defeat in-state rival Quinnipiac this Tuesday (Photo by Brandon Barzola/The Daily Campus)
The UConn softball team has their last weekend series of the season this week, but before that, they have a matchup vs. in-state rival Quinnipiac on Tuesday.
The Huskies are coming off their first in-conference weekend series sweep in head coach Jen McIntyre’s tenure and after outscoring ECU 25-9, they will be looking to keep up the momentum.
The Bobcats are 16-29 on the season and 2-4 against teams that have also played UConn. Both schools have lost to Florida Gulf Coast and Cleveland State. Quinnipiac took one out of two from both CCSU and Hartford, who the Huskies are a combined 3-0 against by a margin of 34-1.
Freshman pitcher Lauren King has been solid all year for the Bobcats, accumulating an 8-7 record with a 2.47 ERA, 1.38 WHIP and 55 strikeouts. She has also only given up four home runs through her 434 at-bats and 116.1 innings pitched, giving her a ridiculous 108.5 at-bats per home run ratio. However, she has only started 14 of her 35 appearances, as their most commonly used starter is senior Kendall Brundrett, who has had some more struggles, currently the owner of a 4.54 ERA and 1.78 WHIP. She does have 25 more strikeouts but that is with 24 more innings pitched and an opponent batting average that is 65 points higher than King.
The Huskies, meanwhile, have seen continued dominance from Marybeth Olson and solid start after solid start from Katie Koshes all season. Now, with senior Jill Stockley recently having returned from an injury that kept her out for an extended period of time, they have multiple good options to go with in the circle.
At the plate, the Bobcats are without junior infielder Rachel Marchuk, who was hitting .325 through 30 games but hasn’t played since April 6. As a result, they have just two hitters who are hitting above .300 before their lineup drops off drastically, with their next best hitter batting just .228.
As for the Huskies, they have three hitters above .300 but overall are much more well-rounded, as you need to go through five more batters before getting to someone who has an average worse than .228. They also have much more power, as their 26 home runs are 16 more than the Bobcats.
The game will take place at Burrill Family Field. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.
Jorge Eckardt is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at jorge.eckardt@uconn.edu.