The Huskies were able to stave off the sweep with a victory on Sunday.
It was another weekend to forget for UConn baseball, as the Huskies lost the first two games of a series against Florida Atlantic, doing so in astonishingly varying ways. However, Jim Penders’ team was able to get the win in the Sunday finale, coming back to Storrs with its first victory on the young season.
Friday: Florida Atlantic 5, UConn 4
UConn was digging the long ball on Friday night, as all four of its runs came via the home run, but the Huskies weren’t able to get much else going offensively in a 5-4 defeat, running their season-opening losing streak to four games.
Tyler Minick made his season debut after being hit by a pitch in spring practice and hit a towering home run to right field on the first pitch he saw in the third inning. He drove in Matt Garbowski and Sam Biller, each of whom singled.
Grant MacArthur knocked a solo shot in the eighth, which tied the game at the time, but those four represented two-thirds of UConn’s six hits on the night. The Huskies would walk the bases loaded with one down in the fourth, but Bryan Padilla got robbed on a line drive up the middle that could have scored two had it gotten past the mound, then Caleb Shpur went down on strikes to end the threat. Other than that, UConn was retired in order four times and had just one frame in which a runner reached scoring position with less than two outs.
It was again a short outing for Gabe Van Emon, who pitched two-plus innings. Over the first two frames, he had some traffic, with two hits, a walk and a wild pitch allowed, but did not allow a runner to score, notching a key punchout in the second with runners on the corners. However, he was lifted in favor of Oliver Pudvar following a leadoff walk in the third. He did not have an apparent injury and Pudvar was warming in the bullpen to begin the frame.
The left-hander worked around trouble in the third without issue, but wasn’t so lucky in the fifth, as four runs came across. Two doubles and a single, followed by a three-run home when when Pudvar was one strike away from getting out of the inning, did the damage.
The winning run came in the eighth, as Cayden Suchy walked the first hitter he faced, as he was called upon with one out to face left-hander Marshall Lipsey. He stole second with two outs and scored on Patrick Ward’s two-strike bloop single to center field that landed just in front of a charging Shpur.
Saturday: Florida Atlantic 25, UConn 17
The Huskies outscored Florida Atlantic 17-10 in the final seven innings, but were unable to overcome a downright horrendous start, in which the Owls went up 15-0 in the first two frames. Ian Cooke made his second start of the year but again struggled, as he was charged with nine runs, six of which were earned, on eight hits and was pulled after just one-plus innings.
At their lowest, the Huskies trailed 17-1 in the third inning, but used a mid-game offensive surge to try and climb back into contention. UConn scored seven runs in each of the fifth and sixth innings, cutting the lead to as little as four. However, Florida Atlantic kept its foot on the gas, responding with a two-run fifth, two-run sixth and three-run seventh, never letting UConn get close enough to threaten further.
This was not a pretty game by any means for the Huskies. The team made two errors in the field and a handful more on the base paths. In the top of the eighth, freshman Connor Lane cleared the wall for his first home run as a Husky, but didn’t step on home plate and was later called out. In the top of the ninth, Tyler Minick forgot how many outs there were and was doubled up on a flyout to end the game.
In all, the two teams combined for a colossal 42 runs, 42 hits, 14 walks and eight long balls. Almost no pitcher was safe with how these two offenses were swinging the bat, and in total, 13 arms were used to get this nearly four-hour slug-fest to the finish line.
Quality offensive performances came from Minick, who had three hits and a team-high five RBI and Maddix Dalena (3-for-5, RBI). Padilla, Aidan Dougherty and Ryan Daniels each had two hits and at least one RBI, while Carter Groen, Minick and Bryan Padilla all homered. Freshman Anthony Belisario, who pinch hit for Caleb Shpur in the sixth, also went yard in what was the first Division I at-bat of his career.
Sunday: UConn 5, Florida Atlantic 3
It took an extra inning of baseball, but UConn snapped its 0-5 start and got its first win of the season in the finale. Husky pitching bounced back in the win, bookended by a strong start from Thomas Ellisen, who scattered one run on four hits in four-plus innings, and a gutsy nine-out save from Brady Afthim, who did not allow a run and struck out four.
Offense was difficult to come by for both teams, which remained scoreless through the first five innings. After the scoring frenzy that went down Saturday night, it seemed the two sides might have exhausted all their hits for the weekend. UConn threatened a few times, including an opportunity in the second with two on and two out. A Matt Garbowski walk and Caleb Shpur single amounted to nothing after Sam Biller popped out to end the inning.
The Owls’ offense woke up first, as they loaded the bases with nobody out in the fifth. Jim Penders pulled his starter for Gabe Van Emon, who came in to face the left-handed hitting Jake Duer. Van Emon coaxed a sacrifice fly before ceding the ball to Greg Shaw III, who induced an inning-ending double play to keep it 1-0.
Not long after, UConn’s offense came alive. In the seventh, the Huskies had a bases-loaded, nobody-out opportunity of their own. With Bryan Padilla at the plate, he grounded into a double play, but it was enough to scratch across the tying run. The two teams continued to trade punches in similar fashion. Marshal Lipsey, who had three hits and five RBI Saturday night, hit a two-run homer to take the lead in the bottom of the seventh, before Tyler Minick responded with a two-run home run of his own in the top of the eighth. In total, Minick finished the weekend with three home runs and 10 RBI. In the top of the 10th, Belisario singled and Daniels brought them both home with a two-run homer — all Afthim needed to shut the door.
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UConn (1-5) will head to southern California for the Dodger Classic this weekend. Friday’s game against USC on the campus of UC Irvine has a 9:30 p.m. first pitch and will be on B1G+.