Men Dom Amore: Despite gaudy record, UConn baseball has lots to clean up for the postseason

[huskymedic]

Around the horn <<

-> Even from a distance too discreet to overhear, it was obvious the coaches weren’t happy on Sunday, after the last scheduled game at Elliot Ballpark. Pitching coach Joshua MacDonald, who was named the top assistant in the country in 2022, gesticulating to emphasis his points, brought some fire to try to re-ignite the Huskies.

“The starting pitching has been so inconsistent,” head coach Jim Penders said when the baseball-style revival meeting broke up, “and frankly, not good. Certainly, the last couple of weeks, it’s been bad. It taxes your bullpen, taxes your defense. It gets physically and mentally exhausting for our defense, and our offense.” <-

-> But it’s hard to imagine any team just slugging its way from here to Omaha. “It’s a lot to ask, to have to come back all the time,” Penders said.<-

-> “We’re resilient,” said Freeberger, who leads the team with 55 RBI. “We know, truthfully, we haven’t been playing that well and sometimes you win when you’re not playing well. If you were to ask us how we’ve been playing the last couple of games, we’d all tell you we haven’t been playing well, not to what we expect of ourselves. The group as a whole are some of the hardest workers I’ve ever been around, and we expect to come back.” <-

 

[Palatine]

Penders seems to have a very realistic handle on his team. The problem is, at this point, there is almost noting he can do about it. The Huskies are what they are. Best of luck to them.

 

[Hookknows]

Creighton
Freeberger- SP for Friday
Stephen Quigley for Saturday
Bull Pen for Sunday

 

[Shortking98]

Creighton
Freeberger- SP for Friday
Stephen Quigley for Saturday
Bull Pen for Sunday

Can we put the Freeberger thing to rest? He is the starting third baseman and a guy who you might count on to throw an inning of low leverage but he has not looked like more than that after getting hit pretty hard his last two outings. He’s also a 1 inning guy

 

[CtBaseball]

Re-upping this which appeared to be bonkers a week ago but maybe seems slightly less crazy in light of the acknowledgements made by most everyone after this past weekend.

 

[CtBaseball]

Penders seems to have a very realistic handle on his team. The problem is, at this point, there is almost noting he can do about it. The Huskies are what they are. Best of luck to them.

Need to get creative with the arms we’ve got. Getting behind every game, in a sport in which momentum is HUGE (I.e. college baseball in particular), ain’t it.

Longer term, I think it’s about hoping for better luck with recruitment of pitchers.

 

[scotty0330]

Can we put the Freeberger thing to rest? He is the starting third baseman and a guy who you might count on to throw an inning of low leverage but he has not looked like more than that after getting hit pretty hard his last two outings. He’s also a 1 inning guy

Correct. Last couple outings have been meh and he found plenty of barrels against the last place team Sunday. Can he be used again in a pinch yes, start….my god no.

 

[Skiblets]

Think we’re seeing the ripple effect of not getting Mozzicatto and the Vermont kid on campus. This would’ve been year 2 for both. Starting rotation is duct tape and bubble gum right now

 

[Hookknows]

Well what’s done is done …. Now it is a day to day process by the Coach’s to see prior to game time who has mental toughness and who are throwing strikes and controlling their off speed pitches right before they have to give lineup cards.

 

[dbmill]

Think we’re seeing the ripple effect of not getting Mozzicatto and the Vermont kid on campus. This would’ve been year 2 for both. Starting rotation is duct tape and bubble gum right now

Good college programs are always going to have some recruits go pro rather than show up on campus. Believe it or not, some recruits going pro is a good sign that the program is heading in the right direction in terms of the quality of some of the players they recruit. I expect this to happen again, as UConn baseball, probably due to its success over the last decade plus and due to the quality new ballpark, is certainly recruiting better and more highly regarded players these days.