The Huskies look to keep their five-game winning streak going.
When:
Thursday, April 17, 6:05 p.m. ET
Friday, April 18, 6:05 p.m. ET
Saturday, April 19, 1:05 p.m. ET
Where: Elliot Ballpark, Storrs, CT
Radio: Mixlr
TV: FloSports
Projected Starters
Thursday: TBA vs. RHP Thomas Cestero (0-2, 14.18)
Friday: TBA vs. RHP Ryan Reich (1-6, 4.75)
Saturday: TBA vs. RHP Cole Hansen (1-2, 6.16)
Series History
UConn and Seton Hall will meet for the 98th, 99th and 100th times over the weekend. Saturday’s finale is the 106th anniversary of the first matchup, which was in 1919. The Pirates will pass Providence for the seventh-longest series in history.
The Huskies are 49-48 all-time, including a 16-3 mark since the original Big East broke up. Seton Hall hasn’t taken a series since 2013, with UConn taking the last six such meetings.
What to Watch For
Seton Hall comes into the weekend riding high, as the Pirates took a series from Creighton last weekend. However, that was just the second winning weekend of the year, which has included sub-200 series losses to Iona and Marist and a 6-7 record against the bottom third of the country.
In tough weather, Seton Hall committed five errors and six unearned runs, but still took two of three, including the opener in which Ryan Reich had to battle through five of them.
Reich will be on the mound on Friday and will be followed by Cole Hansen on Saturday. They have started each weekend, with six pitchers combining to make the other 18. Neither arm have terrible batting averages against, with Reich at .257 and Hansen at .259, but the former is at 5.8 walks per nine innings, with the latter sitting just below, issuing 4.3 free passes per nine.
That has helped keep baserunners on and elevated their ERAs, making patience key. Rob Rispoli (.308/.460/.419) has a 13.8 percent walk rate and has further been hit by 12 pitches, while Grant MacArthur (.289/.418/.446) isn’t far behind. UConn has worked 159 free passes in 1,420 plate appearances, for an 11.2 percent rate as a team. If those table-setters can get on base, there will be plenty of opportunity to do damage.
John Downing (4-0, 1.62) has been a good long man out of the bullpen, as he averages more than 3 2⁄3 innings per appearance, but no other arm has a WHIP below 1.40 and just Patrick Benn (1-0, 3.52) has an ERA below 5.00. Opposing hitters are slashing .301/.408/.430 against Seton Hall pitching. If the opposition was a team, batting average and on-base percentage would be just outside the top 50, while slugging percentage would be in the top half of the country.
Offensively, it’s the tale of two halves. The Pirates have seven qualified hitters and four of them own an OPS above .900, including Aiden Robbins (.421/.539/.669), who’s one of 46 hitters in the country above .400 and 73 with an on-base percentage over .500. While he’s the headliner, Jimmy Brennan (.289/.417/.488), Kevin Milewski (.305/.409/.580) and AJ Soldra (.324/.429/.493) have also had strong years.
However, the rest of the lineup leaves plenty to be desired. Magnus Kreiger (.267/.417/.326) is the only other batter with more than 10 at-bats owning an OPS over .700 and without the above four, Seton Hall is hitting just .217/.333/.278 as a team. UConn pitching will be looking to not make mistakes against Brennan, Milewski, Robbins and Soldra, taking their chances with the remaining five.
These are three games the Huskies need to take. They’ll be more than halfway through Big East play when the weekend is over and already own four losses. St. John’s represents the only Quad 1 or 2 weekend left and just playing the Pirates this weekend, as well as Butler and Maine in May, will cost the program RPI points. For a team trying to get into the at-large discussion that has more Quad 4 games than not remaining on the schedule, avoiding slip-ups will be key to proving its worthiness for an NCAA bid, should it not capture the Big East Tournament crown.