While students at the University of Connecticut enjoyed their spring break last week, the UConn baseball team went west for an eight-game road trip in California. It initially began in disaster as the then-No. 25 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos took all three games against Connecticut behind their offense. The Hook C responded to the adversity with midweek wins over the UCLA Bruins and then-No. 22 UC Irvine Anteaters.
Heading into Riverside, UConn looked to keep that momentum going in their first-ever three-game set with the California Baptist Lancers. They did just that, peppering the Lancers’ powerful pitching staff with their offense and going 2-1 on the weekend.
A 143-minute rain delay did not stop the Huskies from scoring first Friday night. Left fielder Korey Morton led off the second with a single, reaching third on catcher Matt Garbowski’s single and scoring on third baseman Bryan Padilla’s sacrifice fly. That advantage was short-lived, however, as Ryan Kim led off the Lancer half with a solo shot.
Cal Baptist could not take the lead despite getting two more runners aboard with nobody out. Nicholas Dumesnil made up for that in the third with a go-ahead solo homer for a 2-1 lead. Lukas Pirko prevented the Hook C from tying the game in the fifth, and the Lancers made them pay in the bottom half on Garret Ostrander’s sacrifice fly. UConn’s next best chance at trimming the 3-1 deficit came in the seventh, when consecutive singles from Garbowski and Padilla put two runners aboard with nobody out. Jacob Wilson escaped the jam unfazed with two strikeouts and a pop fly in foul territory.
Once redshirt sophomore Thomas Ellisen exited in the eighth, Cal Baptist added five runs that put any chance of a Huskies comeback out of reach. The Lancers scored two on three consecutive singles against three pitchers; Dumesnil cleared the bases with a three-run double off righty Ian Cooke. Cal Baptist kept Morton on second in the ninth for the 8-1 series-opening win.
Connecticut used seven pitchers on Friday but needed just one to even the series on Saturday. Lefthander Garrett Coe fired a complete game shutout without allowing a runner on third base and striking out four on 122 pitches.
The Hook C, meanwhile, got a runner within 90 feet of home plate in the first and grabbed a 1-0 lead when shortstop Paul Tammaro beat out the throw home on Morton’s safety squeeze. Although UConn came up empty handed despite loading the bases in the second, the senior left fielder blasted the first pitch of the third to left center field that doubled his team’s advantage.
The power party did not stop there; catcher Matt Malcom mashed a 1-0 pitch over the left field wall for a 3-0 Huskies’ lead. Malcom was ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct while celebrating his fifth longball of the year; it further fueled Connecticut’s offense.
It especially motivated Morton, who walloped the very first pitch he saw over the left centerfield fence with one on in the fourth to give the Hook C a 5-0 lead. Coe ran into trouble in the Lancers’ half of the fifth following consecutive singles from Connor McGuire and Julian Alvarez. He got out of the situation unscathed. Preseason Big East Player of the Year Jake Studley gave UConn even more insurance with his first hit of the series, an opposite-field blast off Ryan Kittredge.
His two-run shot put UConn up 7-0; sophomore second baseman Ryan Daniels drove in one more via a one-out single. The Husky defense did the rest. Center fielder Drew Kron protected Coe’s shutout bid with a leaping grab at the right centerfield wall to begin the top of the ninth. The graduate lefty worked around a two-out double after that as Connecticut evened up the series 8-0.
Cal Baptist broke the deadlock first Sunday afternoon when Alvarez sent Stephen Quigley’s first pitch of the bottom of the second over the right field wall. A double, a walk and a hit-by-pitch put ducks on the pond for the Hook C in the third with one down. Lancer righty Seth Mattox stranded all three runners behind a flyout and a strikeout. UConn instead responded in the fourth when first baseman Maddix Dalena roped a game-tying RBI single.
Back-to-back singles from Gunner Antillon and Dumesnil to begin the bottom of the fifth knocked Quigley out of the game. Southpaw Braden Quinn left both Cal Baptist runners in scoring position and the contest even at one behind two strikeouts. Two pitches into the sixth, Broadhurst barreled a baseball over the left field fence for his second homer of the season.
Quinn faced another two-runner situation in the bottom half, but despite center fielder TC Simmons robbing McGuire of a base knock with a diving catch, he could not escape unharmed. Antillon’s second single in as many innings with two outs tied the contest at two and ended the junior lefty’s outing.
The Huskies had already stranded the bases loaded once, but with two down in the top of the eighth, their offense would not be denied. Padilla walked in the go-ahead run; Dalena added some significant insurance with a two-run single on Nathan Hemmerling’s very next pitch for a 5-2 lead. Both he and pinch-runner Tyler Minick successfully fooled Lancer lefty Cody New with a double steal that brought home the Huskies’ fourth run of the frame.
Junior righty Brady Afthim shut down Cal Baptist in the final two innings, securing Connecticut’s 6-2 win and their first series victory of 2024.
The Huskies, winners of four out of their last five, return to New England for their first two contests in the Eastern Time Zone since the USF Baseball Tournament. UConn visits the Rhode Island Rams today at 3 p.m. on MIXLR and faces the Long Island Sharks at Elliot Ballpark tomorrow at 2:05 p.m. on UConn+.