The weather is looking good for UConn playing 2 midweek games this week. With all the rainouts and cancellations, the amazing thing is this will be the first time all season that UConn has played 2 midweek games. With Cate not having pitched in quite some time and Gardner on limited innings as a starter due to his injury, this could very well put a big strain on UConn's pitching staff. With Kersten needed for the weekend, I would think Dunlop will get one of these starts, and the other one will be a staff day, perhaps started by Joe Simeone.
At this point, even if Cate does come back to the starting rotation soon, it doesn't seem likely that he will be his old self and capable of going 7 or 8 innings every start. I may be proving to be a worry wart here, but this is a big concern for the post season, both in terms of the AAC conference tournament and the NCAA tourney. Both tournaments pretty much require that a team have 4 or 5 starters that can give you a bunch of innings, and that is the model UConn had in the beginning of the season with both Cate and Gardner healthy. It is not the case at this point of the season, so to me it is definitely a big point of concern with the post season ready to take off in about 2 weeks.
I'm inclined to think that if UConn had a healthy Cate UConn would have swept Memphis. As it is, it is rather amazing that with the injuries to the starting pitching that the Huskies have been able to take as many AAC series as they have.
