UConn baseball has had quite the ride over the past few days. After taking their last weekend series against St. John’s in dramatic fashion and grabbing an impressive primetime win over Kansas State, the Huskies have rebounded well after their slow start to the season. Despite a tough loss against Boston College at Chestnut Hill, they’ll look to rebound in a big way in a weekend series against the Georgetown Hoyas.
Throughout the season, Connecticut’s Big East opponent has had an impressive season, carrying a 26-10 record and an 8-1 conference record. The team recently just had their six-game win streak broken by UMBC in a 6-10 road loss on Tuesday, so they’ll look to string together another successful home stand against the Hook C. Considering how the Hoyas are 14-2 in their house and first place in the conference, it will be as tough of a challenge as the program has faced all season.
But what has been key to the success of the Hoyas thus far? At the plate, the team has plenty of ways they can kill opponents, but at the top of that list is Christian Ficca. The senior first baseman has been excellent in 36 games for the Hoyas, batting .345 with a conference-leading 45 RBIs. He’s been the key to Georgetown’s success and his consistency with his bat should be one of the toughest outs in the series.
Fans shouldn’t forget about Josh Rolling either, who is coming off a Big East Player of the Week campaign that saw the second baseman have a phenomenal set of games against Butler. In that series against the Bulldogs, the graduate slashed .727/.813/.909 with eight hits, two doubles and five RBIs.
One of this roster’s scariest aspects is who Connecticut will face on the mound. The first two games of the series will see the Huskies face Cody Bowker and Andrew Williams, respectively, two arms with just a single loss on their record. Both of those arms are excellent and Williams even has the second lowest ERA in the conference. Georgetown’s ace will be called upon on Sunday and unfortunately for UConn, he’s one of the deadliest arms in the Big East.
It’s tough to top a pitcher like Williams, but Everett Catlett manages to do just that. With a perfect 5-0 record and Big East-leading 2.36 ERA, the senior left-hander is one of the toughest arms to succeed against at the plate. Need an example of that? In his last start against Butler, Catlett was straight-up filthy, tossing six innings, allowing just four hits and striking out eight hitters. Performances like that have been a big reason as to why the Virginia native has been named to five consecutive Big East Weekly Honor Roll selections. Unfortunately for UConn, they’ll have the tall task of facing Catlett on Sunday in the final game of this three-game series.
It’s no secret that this is going to be one of the tougher parts of the season for Connecticut; but on the bright side, they’ve been on a positive trajectory. Despite dropping their last contest against Boston College, they’ve seen some massive positives, especially on the mound. Pitchers like Garrett Coe are coming off excellent performances and hitters like Paul Tammaro have been huge at the plate for the Huskies. They’ll need all hands on the deck for the Hoyas, but they’ve certainly looked the best they have all season.
First pitch will be on Friday at 6 p.m., followed by a Saturday first pitch at 4 p.m. and a Sunday start time of 11:30 a.m. Each game can be viewed on Muscovision, while live stats will be available on GUHoyas.com.