The Huskies start conference play 1-2.
UConn baseball took home one win in three tries against Xavier this weekend, falling to the Musketeers on Friday before splitting the doubleheader Saturday as it drops its first series of Big East play. It was its first league series defeat since Georgetown earned a sweep to close the 2022 season, snapping a 14-series streak.
Friday: Xavier 8, UConn 6
After getting one-hit two days prior, the Husky offense mustered just one run on four hits through eight innings Friday. UConn woke up in the ninth, putting five runs on the board and bringing the tying run to the plate, but could not complete the comeback.
Starter Oliver Pudvar provided the Huskies with some length on the mound — finishing seven innings of work — but was charged for six earned runs on seven hits and two walks.
UConn opened the scoring, a leadoff home run in the top of the first courtesy of Rob Rispoli, but Xavier responded with eight unanswered runs spread out over the third, fourth, fifth and eighth innings to take a victory.
Out of the bullpen after Pudvar came Kyle Peters, who gave up two of those eight unanswered runs in the eighth, allowing a double and a home run. After a fly out, the next two hitters reached on a single and a walk, respectively, but Peters induced a line out to escape the frame.
The ninth inning was UConn’s best offensively. The Huskies had just five hits going back their previous 17 innings and were desperately in need of a spark. Down seven runs, they would get more than just that, but still fell short. Gabriel Tirado started the inning by blasting a solo home run to set the tone. Padilla reached on an infield single, while Sam Biller and Caleb Shpur singled to set up Matt Garbowski with the bases loaded and nobody out. The catcher grounded the ball back to the pitcher, but all runners advanced one base safely on a throwing error. Rispoli walked to score Biller and Tyler Minick flew out to score Shpur. Ryan Daniels hit into a fielder’s choice, with Xavier trading the run for an out. With two outs and Grant MacArthur at the plate, representing himself as the tying run, he struck out to end the game.
In all, UConn scored five runs in the inning and Xavier deployed four pitchers to get the three outs it needed.
Saturday Game 1: UConn 9, Xavier 4
The first game of Saturday’s doubleheader proved to be the only in which the Huskies were triumphant on the weekend, propelled to the win behind a four-run fourth inning.
Jim Penders handed the ball to Cayden Suchy for the start. Suchy rewarded his skipper with 5 1⁄3 innings on the mound, giving up just two earned runs behind four strikeouts, six hits, three walks and one unearned run on top of his two earned.
UConn stayed hot through the end of Friday’s game and used the volatility of Xavier starting pitcher Luke Hoskins’ command to their advantage. The first two runners, Rob Rispoli and Sam Biller, both were hit by pitches. A productive flyout pushed Rispoli to third and Biller stole second to put two Huskies in scoring position with one out. Ryan Daniels scored Rispoli on a sacrifice fly and the next hitter, Grant MacArthur, also reached on a hit by pitch. Beau Root brought everybody home with a three-run homer. Dating back to Friday, it was UConn’s ninth run in its last two innings of play.
Xavier would get one run in the bottom frame, but UConn would answer right back to regain a four-run lead, as Daniels knocked his second sacrifice fly of the afternoon.
Xavier would score once more in the third and sixth innings, but could not keep it close as UConn scored two runs of its own in each of the sixth and seventh. In the sixth, Caleb Shpur led off with a single and stole second. Bryan Padilla doubled him home, eventually scoring himself on a Rispoli single. In the seventh, Minick left the yard with a solo home run and Garbowski singled to score MacArthur, who reached scoring position after consecutive walks.
Greg Shaw III contributed two-thirds of an inning out of the bullpen, but the real star was Ian Cooke. The right-hander pitched the final three innings, working around four hits to keep Xavier off the board in the game’s final third. He walked none, struck out four and surrendered no runs to lock up UConn’s 9-4 win.
Saturday Game 2: Xavier 10, UConn 7
In the rubber match, UConn out-hit Xavier but could not outscore them, stranding seven runners as the Musketeers took the series.
While neither outing was pretty, Musketeer starter Ben Weber out-dueled UConn starter Tommy Ellisen. Weber went nearly six innings, getting tagged for 11 hits and five earned runs, though Ellisen went just 1 2⁄3 , giving up five hits — three of which went for extra bases — two walks and five earned runs.
After UConn scored in the first inning in both Friday’s game and the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, Xavier kept the pattern ongoing, scoring three in the opening frame.
Carter Hendrickson singled with one out and scored on a triple by Connor Misch. The next hitter, Clay Burdette, homered to open up the 3-0 lead. The next inning, that lead stretched to four as Ellisen continued to struggle. Isaac Waschmann singled and stole second, scoring on a single from shortstop Jake Lambdin. Ellisen allowed a double to Hendrickson and a walk to Misch, ending his day after 40 pitches.
Penders called upon right-hander Jude Abbadessa to navigate the mess, but the sophomore did not fare much better. He would complete the inning, getting his first hitter to foul out, but give up two runs of his own in the next frame on a two-run homer.
UConn had gotten on the board by that point, however, scoring two runs in the top of the third. Bryan Padilla, Connor Lane and Caleb Shpur loaded the bases with three-consecutive singles and Rob Rispoli scored Padilla on a fielder’s choice. Beau Root did the same in the next at-bat before Daniels grounded out to end the inning.
From there, the two teams would continue to ping-pong back and forth. Each time UConn pulled a run closer, Xavier would answer right back to re-establish its lead. Both teams scored a run in the fifth. UConn scored two in the sixth, but Xavier one-upped the Huskies with three of their own in the same frame. In the ninth, UConn threatened to come back much like Friday, but managed just two runs when it needed five to tie.
The only Husky pitcher not to allow an earned run in his outing was Brady Afthim, who mopped up the sixth inning before firing a scoreless seventh and eighth, keeping UConn involved by keep Xavier off the board.
—
UConn (11-15) will host Quinnipiac on Tuesday afternoon at 3:05 p.m. in its next game. The contest will be carried on UConn+.