The UConn baseball team has already had two winning weekends in Florida, and will look for another to close out their last visit of the season in a series against Florida International University.
The Hook C has a three-game series with one matchup each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of this weekend, with play beginning on Friday at 7 p.m. in Miami. UConn will be looking to continue its four-game win streak. It’s still early in the season, but the Huskies have only lost one game out of the six contests they’ve had already, and hope to maintain that success in Florida again this weekend.
Last weekend, UConn swept the University of North Florida, scoring 11 runs on both Friday and Saturday. The team finished the series on Sunday with a 5-3 win after forcing an extra inning for a closer margin of victory, albeit still a victory. As of right now, this puts UConn at 5-1 overall. The Huskies haven’t entered conference play yet and won’t do so until April.
FIU is further along in its season, having already completed 10 games for a 7-3 record. The Panthers opened their season with a four-game series against the University of St. Thomas, sweeping the Tommies. FIU also swept Seton Hall in the two-game series, but dropped both matches in the series against the University of Michigan.
The only shared opponent that each team has faced so far is the University of South Florida. UConn beat USF 5-4 in a 10-inning game, while FIU lost on Tuesday to the Bulls, 0-7.
UConn and FIU only started playing each other in 2015, and the teams haven’t met since then. In March 2015, they played three games in Miami, with UConn winning the series after finishing victorious in two games. Regardless, each team is completely fresh and this will be the first time that each roster has met.
As of right now, it hasn’t been announced who will be the starting pitcher for either the Huskies or the Panthers. However, in a creative Instagram post promotion for the weekend’s series, a short video compilation as a parody of “Miami Vice” was featured on the team’s page, @uconnbsb. Titled “HookC Vice,” the post featured right-handed pitchers Pat Gallagher and Enzo Stefanoni.
Gallagher, a sophomore, and Stefanoni, a graduate student, both pitched last weekend and were able to contribute to a weekend full of wins, so it’s likely that they will each pitch at some point for the FIU series. However, the official starting lineup has yet to be announced. As of right now, the team appears to be full and ready for the weekend ahead, with no injuries reported from the North Florida series. As a result, the team looks to be ready for more sunshine and hopeful to keep improving the record.
Friday’s game begins at 7 p.m., Saturday’s at 6 p.m. and then the final game of the series will be played at noon on Sunday. All games will be broadcasted on MIXLR radio.
