The UConn softball team bracketed the spring break week with matchups against the No. 7 Tennessee Lady Volunteers and the Seton Hall Pirates. Although Connecticut was swept by Tennessee, they bounced back to sweep Seton Hall.
To start the series against the Lady Vols, UConn played two back-to-back games in Knoxville, Tenn. on the evening of March 4. With redshirt sophomore Sydney Koosh in the circle for UConn in game one, Tennessee began the scoring with a sacrifice fly from Sophia Nugent that drove in a run. The Huskies tied it up at 1-1 in the top of the third with a solo shot from Lexi Hastings.
From there, the Lady Vols controlled the game, beginning in the bottom of the third when Tennessee’s Kinsey Fiedler singled to bring in a run. Then, with runners on second and third base, Taylor Pannell homered to left center, making the score 5-1.
Tennessee poured it on in the fourth inning, scoring three more runs, before tacking on one more in the fifth. This brought the final score to 9-1.
The second game saw a much closer battle. Hastings homered again, her second of the day and third overall, in the fourth inning to give Connecticut a 1-0 advantage. The Lady Vols made the score 1-1 in the bottom of the inning.
In the top of the fifth, UConn took a 2-1 lead, only for Tennessee to tie it right back up in the bottom half. Two innings later, Cat Petteys scored off of a fielding error by the Lady Vols, but once again Tennessee bounced back to make the score 3-3 and force extra innings. The game was not decided until the tenth inning, when the Lady Vols finally broke through with a single from senior Laura Mealer to win the contest 4-3.
In the last game of the series, UConn’s Payton Kinney started in the circle and was superb for four innings, keeping the Lady Vols scoreless, before junior Grace Jenkins hit a solo home run down the right field line for the Huskies in the fifth inning. Tennessee responded, however, with three runs in their half of the inning to make the score 3-1. UConn charged back in the sixth inning, as singles from Kaitlyn Breslin and Kaitlyn Kibling drove in two runs to tie the score at 3-3, but Tennessee broke the tie with three runs a half inning later, clinching the series sweep.
A week later, UConn’s home series against Seton Hall provided an opportunity to rebound, and the Huskies took it. The first game of the series saw a shutout of the Pirates, as Kinney pitched excellently to record a one-hit complete game. Connecticut’s offense also got going. Kaiea Higa had a sacrifice fly to open the scoring in the first inning, and Hastings singled in the second to make the score 2-0. Breslin doubled in the fifth, bringing in two runs. The Huskies added three more in the sixth as Rosie Garcia hit a two-run double and Hope Jenkins drove in the final run with a single, cementing the final score of 7-0.
Koosh started in the second game for the Huskies and went 3.1 innings with one earned run. UConn’s offense once again started with a sacrifice fly, this time from Petteys, to put them up 1-0 in the first inning. The Pirates managed to tie the score in the top of the second, but from there it was all UConn. In the bottom half of the inning, G. Jenkins doubled to left center with two outs to bring in two runs. An inning later, a sacrifice bunt from Heidi Barber and a Seton Hall error brought in two more runs.
Seton Hall made the score 5-2 in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly, but UConn’s Garcia put the game away with a one-run single in the bottom half, resulting in a final score of 6-2.
The third and final contest kept up the trend for offense, but this time both teams had hot bats. The Huskies scored six runs in the first inning, fueled by a three-run homer from Breslin. After that offensive explosion, Seton Hall clawed back a run, only for UConn to score again in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly from Savannah Ring, putting the Huskies up 7-1. Then, G. Jenkins smashed a two-run home run to right.
The Pirates battled all the way back, however, scoring eight runs over three innings, punctuated by a four-run fifth. Heading into the bottom of the sixth, the score was tied 9-9. Then UConn shut the door with an offensive explosion, putting up eight runs to secure the series sweep.