The baseball team UConn made its way south for the third weekend in a row, this time to Conway, SC, to attend the “Baseball at the Beach” event at Coastal Carolina University. The Huskies are losing 2-1 so far, beating Miami (Ohio) on Friday, losing to Davidson on Saturday and beating Coastal Carolina in an exciting extra inning game on Sunday. The team has yet another game at Conway on Monday at noon against Coastal Carolina again.
On Friday, UConn (4-5) had an almost perfect exit from Ben Casparius in the 5-0 victory over the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks (6-5). Casparius gave eight innings of shutout, allowing only three strokes and reaching a career record of 11. He won his first victory with a UConn uniform.
“He did a great job,” said coach Jim Penders after Friday’s game. “That’s how good we know he can be, and he should be taking a lot of advantage out of it. He basically carried us today. ”
Sam Favieri entered and completed the shutout for the Huskies with a ninth clean entry.
At the base, the Huskies hit just six strokes, but were timely enough to result in five runs. In the second round, UConn made three runs after Christian Fedko doubled and scored in a wild field. Later in the frame, Chris Winkel drew a walk full of bases, and Zach Bushling followed with a single RBI clutch.
Later in the game, Reggie Crawford hit a triple RBI and Pat Winkel added a double RBI. That was more than enough for Casparius, who was incredible for the Huskies.
UConn failed to keep pace on Saturday morning, losing to Davidson Wildcats (5-5) 4-3. The Huskies had a golden opportunity to make a statement to start the game with bases loaded and no one outside in the first inning. However, the heart of the order fell 1-2-3 to arrest the runners. Penders said it really set the tone for the game, and not in a good way.
“Offensively, I thought we were terrible,” said Penders. “In the first inning, we had an opportunity and we had three terrible attempts to hit in a row. It kind of set the tone for them and kept them out of harm’s way. ”
The score remained 0-0 until the fourth inning, when Joe Simeone had some problems for the Huskies. He released a few strokes and some free base runners in one hike and one shot hitting, which resulted in two runs for Davidson. UConn managed to tie the game 2-2 after a Bushling RBI single in the fifth and a sacrifice by David Langer in the sixth.
But at the end of the sixth, Kenny Haus, who replaced Simeone in the fourth and recovered from a problem, left a two-run home run for Davisdson’s John Hosmer to make it 4-2.
The Huskies had a ninth lap in Crawford’s fourth home run of the season, but it was not enough and UConn lost his fourth game of a race of the season.
On Sunday, the Huskies recovered with a big 5-4 win over Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (7-3) in 12 entries. Coastal Carolina was the best team UConn faced at the weekend, with victories already this season over teams classified as West Virginia, Wake Forest and Duke.
The Huskies jumped to a 3-0 lead in three solo home runs – two from Pat Winkel, bringing the season total to three, and one from Kevin Ferrer, the first of his career. Then Coastal Carolina returned in the fifth inning to tie the game in three against UConn holder Austin Peterson, who was hitherto handling the game. Peterson had more problems in the sixth, but Andrew Marrerro came and went.
Marrerro also had some problems in the seventh, and really let the Chanticleers take a 4-3 lead in a wild field. But he struggled and stranded the loaded bases to keep UConn in the game. That would be the key, as the Huskies managed to tie the game in the ninth, when Erik Stock hit the pinch runner Andy Hague with a sacrificial fly.
The game would go to the extras, where it was quiet until the 12th inning, when Stock scored on a Crawford fielder’s choice, taking his RBI to 12. Stock had a great day, going 3 to 6 on the board with an RBI and scoring the crucial forward race. Caleb Wurster closed the door at the end of the entry, crowning an incredible 4.2 goalless entries in relief with 10 eliminations, which resulted in his second win of the season.
“We had a guy coming out of the bullpen tonight, he was electric,” said Penders of Wurster’s brave performance. “His things were unbelievable … He was just incredible. We really needed that. ”
The Huskies achieved their most difficult win of the young season so far on Sunday. UConn and Coastal Carolina will meet again on Monday at noon. The game can be viewed on ESPN + or heard on 91.7 WHUS. If this game is similar to Sunday’s game, tighten your belt because it will be good.