Over the weekend, the Huskies paid a visit to the Butler Bulldogs for their second Big East matchup of the year. Coming off two midweek wins against Central Connecticut and Yale, UConn looked to add to their 11-game win streak as they’ve been turning the corner from their slow start with full steam. In their way was a Butler team who were struggling as of late, having lost five of their last six games, including a sweep by St. John’s. With Butler hosting, the Bulldogs hoped to stop the red-hot Huskies from going back to their winning ways. Here’s how this weekend went:
UConn: 9 Butler: 0 (F/5)
In the first game of the weekend, UConn was excellent on both sides of the ball. Lexi Hastings and Rosie Garcia drove in eight runs combined, while pitchers Hallie Siems and Meghan O’Neil combined for five shutout innings to hand the Huskies their 12th straight win. Hastings started the day off strong for Connecticut, homering on the game’s third pitch to give UConn the lead with their first batter. It took until the top of the second for Hastings to come up big again for the Huskies, this time firing a double to center that brought in Giuliana Abruscato. A Grace Jenkins walk loaded the bases for Rosie Garcia, who, with a deep drive to left field, cashed in four more runs for Connecticut with a grand slam. Up 6-0, Garcia struck again, this time in the top of the fourth with another home run. UConn brought in two more in the fifth with a pinch-hit single from Taylor Zatyk and a sacrifice fly from Hastings, while O’Neil shut the door in the bottom half to bring UConn a 9-0 victory. Siems started the game for Connecticut, throwing four innings, striking out three and allowing four hits. She picked up her eighth win of the year.
UConn: 10 Butler: 8
Game two of the weekend featured a lot more offense from both teams, for a combined 18 runs across seven innings. The Huskies once again capitalized in the first inning, this time jumping out to a 3-0 lead off singles from Jana Sanden and Haley Coupal and a sacrifice fly from Hope Jenkins. This knocked Butler starter Katie Petran out with just 0.2 innings pitched. Butler then responded with a five-run third, catapulting themselves to a 5-3 advantage for their first lead of the weekend. However, UConn was quick to respond. In the top half of the next inning, the Huskies scored six to go back in front. Grace Jenkins drew a bases-loaded walk, Rosie Garcia reached on a fielder’s choice, Jana Sanden and Hope Jenkins singled in three more runs, while Savannah Ring reached on an error to bring in the final run of the inning. But once again, Butler responded. The Bulldogs brought the game within one with a home run and two RBI singles in the bottom of the fifth to keep this high scoring game close at 9-8. UConn added an insurance run in the top of the sixth with Rosie Garcia’s third home run in two days, while Payton Kinney pitched a clean final two innings to secure another win for Connecticut.
UConn: 1 Butler: 2
For the last game of the series, the offenses cooled off for the lowest scoring game of the three. Most of that can be credited to stellar situational pitching from both teams. Siems pitched Sunday for Connecticut and kept the game scoreless despite loading the bases in the second. Butler pushed a run to the plate in the third, a sacrifice fly from Ella White, the lone blemish that Siems allowed this weekend. She’d pitch herself out of another jam in the fourth, working a groundout to stop another Butler threat with runners on the corners, before being replaced by Meghan O’Neil in the fifth. As for UConn, they were held scoreless for the first five innings until a Lexi Hastings single in the sixth brought in Kaitlyn Kibling to tie the game at one apiece and keep the winning streak alive. Those hopes were sadly ended in the bottom of the seventh when after two Butler singles put a runner on third for Ella White who delivered another sacrifice fly to walk it off for the Bulldogs.
UConn finishes the weekend with an overall record of 17-12, 5-1 in Big East play. They’ll look to start a new winning streak this coming week with a game Tuesday against Boston University, and then back to conference play next weekend against Providence here in Storrs.