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Message: [QUOTE="huskymedic, post: 3287171, member: 549"] At third base, the favorite appears to be senior David Langer, who arrived at UConn last year as a juco transfer from California. Langer crushed a no-doubter solo homer to left field in the scrimmage, then got hit in the face by a pitch in his next at-bat. He returned to the dugout a little later, showing some of that UConn toughness that Penders talks about. “David Langer has really gotten our attention,” Penders said. “He looks like a different guy, about 20 pounds lighter than he was a year ago and his swing looks really quick. He had a good summer, not a great summer, but he’s probably been our MVP so far in the last couple weeks we’ve been doing this. He’s been very good. He does have some pop, and he’s been moving around third base pretty well.”<< >>As for the pitching staff, look for the Huskies to do a lot of mixing and matching, because this staff doesn’t have an established innings-eating starter like Feole or Kersten. Crawford and Casparius (if eligible) have obvious weekend starter potential, and redshirt sophomore Jimmy Wang made 12 starts last spring gaining valuable experience. Wang was outstanding in two scoreless innings at the scrimmage I saw, striking out four. A 6-foot-3, 208-pound righty with an over-the-top delivery, Wang worked downhill at 88-91 and showed the ability to spin a nice slurve at 78-80. Penders said he’s capable of running his fastball up to 95, but the key for him is to become more consistent with his slider, which came and went last year. But Wang has made huge strides since he showed up at UConn as a total unknown, literally. He was an actuarial science student from Beijing by way of Michigan who emailed Penders and said, “I’ve never been clocked but I think I’m somewhere in the high 80s, and I’m 6-foot-4,” as Penders recalls it. “The rest is history,” Penders said. “We couldn’t try him out until the open tryout, which was like the second week of September. We’d catch him at the back end of our practices sneaking onto the field and literally throwing one ball from pole to pole and then sprinting after it, and throwing it back to the other pole. So we just kind of left a bag of balls where he could find it. He’s got arm strength for days, it’s impressive. He’s learned how to hold runners, he does have a lot of aptitude. You tell him once, he’s a pleaser. But he’s got a chance to be really good.”<< [/QUOTE]

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