After an excellent 35-26 campaign for the UConn baseball team, the Hook C will open their 2025 campaign in Caguas, Puerto Rico, for a three-game weekend series against Stetson, Missouri and Penn State. Despite the tall task ahead of the program, they have a good chance of sweeping their opening weekend series.
Connecticut is coming off a 2024 season where they not only won the Big East regular season but where they advanced to the Tallahassee Super Regionals, losing to FSU. Coming into this campaign, the Huskies are picked to win the Big East and will have some big names to help them make an even deeper run in the NCAA tournament.
Right-handed pitcher Ian Cooke was picked as the Big East Preseason Pitcher of the Year. The senior is coming off an excellent season, holding opponents to a .222 batting average. Not to mention, Cooke also logged 67.1 innings and ranked third in the conference with 85 strikeouts. As good as the pitching for the Huskies is, their bats are just as good as they sport the Preseason Player of the Year, Maddix Dalena.
The first baseman is coming off an All-Big East Second Team campaign, slashing .242/.358/.511 with 13 long balls and 43 RBIs. However, Dalena did most of his damage in games where he heated up, posting 13 multi-RBI and 13 multiple-hit games a season ago. Fans should be looking for how quickly the Pennsylvania native gets out of the gates, as he is a significant bat that should decide some contests this weekend. As good as Dalena is expected to be, Connecticut has four other Preseason All-Big East players rostered.
Third baseman Tyler Minick, shortstop Bryan Padilla, outfielder Caleb Shpur and reliever Brady Afthim will all make the trip down to Puerto Rico. However, as good as the Huskies are this weekend, the programs they will face are solid.
Stetson is picked to win the Atlantic Sun Conference again in dominating fashion; they will rely upon some solid bats and pitching to do so. Despite being a second baseman, Yohann Dessureault doesn’t embrace the “can’t hit for power” stereotype, as the senior mashed a career-high 11 home runs. Dessurealut also slashed an excellent .293/.369/.489 from the dish, proving that he was a threat to both leave the ballpark and get on base. The Canadian also ranks No. 26 out of all second basemen in Division I, according to D1Baseball.com. The Hatters also retain their RBI leader from a year ago, Lorenzo Meola, who the Huskies will also want to be on the lookout for.
On Saturday, Feb. 15, the Huskies will clash with the Missouri Tigers. Missouri is coming off a bumpy 23-32 campaign, as their nearly 6.00 ERA a year ago got them into trouble at times. However, the Tigers will retain a few crucial bats.
Jackson Lovich is a name that UConn fans will want to keep tabs on, as the junior is coming off an excellent 2024 campaign. In the Kansas native’s previous season, he slashed .287/.277/.540 from the plate, belted 10 homers and drove in 35 runners. Considering that the program lost their best bat from a season ago, Trevor Austin, the Huskies need to limit the damage that Lovich does. Offensively, Connecticut must work themselves into deep counts. This is where Missouri pitchers struggled a year ago, and their opponents took advantage of this.
To close out the Huskies weekend, the program will match up with the Penn State Nittany Lions on Sunday, Feb. 16. Penn State is coming off a 25-25 campaign where the offense was never an issue; their pitching staff was sometimes unreliable, sporting an ERA of nearly seven. Despite this, the Nittany Lions will retain redshirt sophomore Bryce Molinaro, who led the team in batting average (.329), slugging percentage (.560), home runs (11), RBIs (45) and steals (7). Molinaro was also named to the Preseason All-Big Ten team. However, Penn State has many new faces from a season ago, welcoming 24 newcomers, including Saint Joseph’s transfer Ryan Weingartner. The junior was one of eight players in D1 a season ago to hit 15 home runs and steal 18 bags, earning him All-Atlantic 10 honors.
After a nearly six-month layoff, college baseball is back. The Huskies finally return to action this weekend in a crucial series that will help them get back up to speed for all that this season has to offer, including stiff Big East competition and the NCAA tournament.