While the start of the season may have looked bleak for the UConn baseball team, things have certainly started to shift toward a positive note. Despite the group falling to Rhode Island on the road in a matchup at Bill Beck Field, they rebounded nicely in their home opener win over Long Island University.
In the team’s loss to the Rams by a score of 4-1, it was another instance of runs failing to come in a key period. While starter Joe Cinnella was able to have a solid outing, giving up just two earned runs in five innings, it wasn’t enough to get his guys the win. After the Huskies took the lead in the top of the fourth after an RBI groundout from Matt Malcom to score Paul Tammaro, the opportunity arose for Rhode Island to respond, and they did just that. During the very next offensive opportunity, the program scored two runs off of Cinnella via a home run from Michael Anderson and a sacrifice fly from Nicholas Toro. Just like that, Connecticut was down by two, a deficit they’d never recover from.
To add insult to injury, Rhode Island grabbed an additional two runs off a bomb from Anthony DePino. With just two hits throughout the entire outing, the Hook C would walk away with a crushing defeat.
But this was simply extra motivation for the team’s home opener against the LIU Sharks. With Ben Schild tasked to give his guys some strong pitching, the team walked into Elliot Ballpark on Wednesday looking for their first home victory of the season.
However, things certainly didn’t start off on the right foot. After Schild gave up the first run of the game to LIU, the Sharks responded with an additional four runs, a situation that saw the program give up three runs on a throw that sailed out of play.
Yet, unlike Tuesday’s loss, the program responded in a big way during the next inning. With R.J. Latkowski on the mound, he struggled against the Hook C offense, initially allowing the program to walk in a run and grab additional support via an RBI groundout from Drew Kron. Yet, the biggest moment of the game came off the bat of Tammaro. On a 2-2 count with 2 outs, the right-hander cracked a ball over the left field wall for a grand slam of epic proportions. That would give the Huskies a 6-5 lead and some massive momentum throughout the game.
After a run each from both rosters, Connecticut headed into the bottom of the fifth inning up 7-6. To the delight of the many home fans in attendance, things were expected to get a lot better as UConn batted in 4 more runs to take over the game, 11-6. Following an RBI single from Korey Morton that couldn’t quite be fielded by shortstop Benjamin Fierenzi, Luke Broadhurst would help his team out via the long ball, slapping the baseball out to right field for another home run.
But things weren’t all said and done for the end decision. The Sharks were able to grab two more runs in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, to narrow the Hook C lead to 3. The pressure was on to secure the game and this time, UConn left no doubt of victory.
With left-hander Kevin Small out of the pen and pitching, he struggled mightily and givegave up three runs to offer the Huskies a firm hold of Wednesday’s contest. After walking in Morton, Kron would have a 2 RBI single to bring in Caleb Shpur and Matt Garbowski, giving the outfielder 3 RBIs on the day.
As Brady Afthim entered to close it out the game, he’d retired the side handily to give the Huskies their eighth win of the season and Cooke his first victory.
With some positive momentum headed into another road trip for the Hook C, Jim Penders and cCo. will head to New Jersey for a series with against Rutgers.