When they last played in Virginia, the UConn baseball team lost two out of three games versus the then-No. 5 Virginia Cavaliers. Back in the Old Dominion for the first time since 2021, Connecticut found themselves trailing against the Georgetown Hoyas five times in three contests.
The Hook C rallied on each occasion at Capital One Park in Tysons, Virginia, en route to their first sweep of the 2024 season.
Third baseman Luke Broadhurst delivered UConn’s first big hit on Friday night, smoking a go-ahead blast four pitches into the ninth inning. His team-leading ninth homer of the season was only the peak of a back-and-forth affair.
Big East Pitcher of the Week Ian Cooke’s scoreless streak ended in the Georgetown half of the second on two straight RBI knocks down the middle. Senior left fielder Korey Morton started the Huskies’ half of the fourth with a bang, turning on an 0-1 pitch for his seventh homer of the season and cutting the Hoyas’ lead in half. Georgetown got that run back and more in the fifth when catcher Owen Carapellotti lined a two-run double to deep right field for a 4-1 lead.
Connecticut could not muster much offense beyond Morton’s solo shot, that is, until they loaded the bases in the seventh. With one out, Endicott transfer Caleb Shpur doubled down the left field line, pulling the Hook C within one as Jake Studley and Maddix Dalena touched home plate. Broadhurst put UConn ahead 5-4 with his own bases-loaded two-run hit off relief pitcher Nick Davis.
That one-run Huskies’ advantage did not last long. Jake Hyde’s double and two Hoya walks loaded the bases with one away. Carapellotti cashed instantly with a go-ahead two-run single off Seton Hall transfer Joe Cinnella. Down 6-5 in the top of the eighth, however, Shpur struck again.
The graduate center fielder tied the game at six with a single to right centerfield, and Broadhurst put Connecticut ahead in the ninth. Junior lefty Braden Quinn pitched the final two innings, allowing a leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth and striking out everybody else. Quinn looked and shrugged at Georgetown’s dugout following his sixth punchout as Hook C captured a series-opening 7-6 victory.
If Friday night belonged to the graduate third baseman, then Saturday night’s spotlight fell on redshirt junior Bryan Padilla. UConn’s second baseman recorded an RBI in each official at-bat and brought home four of the team’s five runs.
Padilla’s first RBI came in a choppy first inning where the Hoyas committed three errors. The third miscue brought Shpur home and broke the ice for the Huskies. With the inning still going, the redshirt junior hit a sacrifice groundout and doubled Connecticut’s early lead.
Those three errors did not faze Georgetown, whose offense erupted in the bottom of the second. Joe Hollerbach cut into the Hoyas’ two-run deficit on the first pitch of the frame. Marco Castillo and Kavi Caster doubled on consecutive pitches to tie the contest at two; Hyde got in on the fun with his own go-ahead double.
Despite his team being down 3-2, Padilla kept doing damage. The Brooklyn native went yard in the top of the fourth, tying the contest at three on his fourth longball of the year. Hollerbach reached on an error to begin the bottom of the sixth, and without his team recording a hit, put the Hoyas ahead 4-3 on Castillo’s sacrifice fly.
The top of the eighth provided the perfect opportunity for Padilla, who already had two RBIs, to again produce at the plate. The redshirt junior did just that, ripping a go-ahead two-run single with ducks on the pond and giving the Hook C a 5-4 lead.
While all of this was happening, graduate southpaw Garrett Coe struck out nine Georgetown hitters on 120 pitches in 7.2 innings. Junior closer Brady Afthim stranded runners on the corners in the bottom of the ninth as UConn grabbed the series-clinching 5-4 win and went above .500 for the first time since February.
Rather than one specific player or one clutch hit, the Huskies rallied Sunday with two dominant innings of offense. Carapellotti continued to be the thorn in Connecticut’s side when he clobbered a three-run home run in the first inning. Those were the only runs Big East Preseason Pitcher of the Year Stephen Quigley allowed.
The Hook C made the Hoyas pay for not adding to their 3-0 lead. Dalena smacked a two-run double to pull UConn within one and, before long, touched home plate on Shpur’s game-tying RBI single in the fourth. Broadhurst subsequently lined a go-ahead single one pitch after Tammaro loaded the bases for the Huskies’ first lead of the day.
That base knock brought in righty Cody Jensen, who added one more run to Catlett’s line when Morton hit a sacrifice fly and put Connecticut up 5-3. Padilla kept building on that offensive momentum in the fifth, getting on base after being hit by a pitch and making it to third on a passed ball. With two down, true freshman Tyler Minick mashed an opposite-field two-run homer as the Hook C went ahead 7-3.
The Hoyas got one run back in the sixth when Hyde whacked an RBI single. Quinn stranded the bases loaded following an infield single in that frame, but it was not the only adversity he faced. Despite working around consecutive singles to start the seventh, the junior southpaw could not escape the eighth inning unscathed.
With two down and one aboard, Christian Ficca became just the second player all season to take Quinn deep. His two-run shot pulled Georgetown within one, yet that was as close as they got. Afthim again finished off the comeback in the ninth, working around a leadoff walk for the 7-6 UConn triumph and a pivotal series sweep.
UConn concludes April with a five-game homestand at Elliot Ballpark, starting with a matchup against the UMass-Amherst Minutemen tomorrow. First pitch from Storrs is at 6:05 p.m. EDT on UConn+.