Opening Weekend vs. UMass Lowell in Port St. Lucie

[huskymedic]

Russell in for Napiarsky for T4

 

[huskymedic]

 

[uconnbaseball]

Back down by 4, Lowell crushing everything.

Not too worried, the pitchers that handled Lowell the first 3 games of this series will be the ones Texas will be facing.

 

[huskymedic]

Creeping closer... 9-7 B6 and still grinding. Pitching change.

 

[uconnbaseball]

Fun game so far. We have stranded a ton of base runners, but the offensive outburst vs. their best pitchers has been encouraging.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[uconnbaseball]

2 outs, 2 on. Huge situation for Prato.

 

[huskymedic]

LOB/RISP
4 games in a row in Feb. taking its toll.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[uconnbaseball]

Feldstein is going to be a beast.

 

[scotty0330]

Looks like Clark Kent hits like superman

 

[uconnbaseball]

We score one and strand two more. This game has been incredibly frustrating, but holding them here is crucial.

 

[huskymedic]

Sweep would have been nice but good start to season!

 

[uconnbaseball]

3-1 going into Texas. The bullpen has got to pitch better if we want to win that series.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[scotty0330]

Just surprised since by 4th game it is our depth against theirs. I was feeling confident that a team making transition to division 1 this would be the easiest game of the weekend. Agreed bullpen has to be a lot better against horns.....good measuring stick series for this team

 

[uconnbaseball]

Just surprised since by 4th game it is our depth against theirs. I was feeling confident that a team making transition to division 1 this would be the easiest game of the weekend. Agreed bullpen has to be a lot better against horns.....good measuring stick series for this team

They mostly used their depth guys yesterday and went all out to win today's game. Their young catcher is going to be a good one.

 

[huskymedic]

Texas baseball splits series against No. 23 Rice

 

[Baseballguy]

I'm excited for next weeks series. The freshmen and Feldstein really came to play this week, it should be interesting to see how that translates to better competition in a hostile environment. Overall I thought it was a good series for the team. The last game got away early and couldn't quite stop the bleeding but the offense kept chipping away. That's something the the team last year did a lot. Despite the lack of a Bobby Melley or Duff type power I think we'll power more evenly distributed throughout the lineup which may be even more beneficial. Keep in mind we are missing 2 of our better offensive players in Willy and Toppa.

 

[dbmill]

It's hard to win a game when your starting pitcher can't get out of the 2nd inning and leaves you in a decent sized hole on the scoreboard. Still, I like how the UConn offense kept battling back to make it a game. Doug Domnarski is going to see better days on the mound. However, for the time being those better days may be either out of the bullpen or as a middle of the week starter.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with how this weekend went for UConn baseball. For three games the starting pitching was quite good, and that includes special kudos for Mason Feole making his first start. All the newcomers to the team who played made positive contributions at some point during the weekend series. It isn't often that you can say four incoming position players all hit homers during their debut weekend series. The offense did well enough during the weekend to the point where Coach Penders did not have to go overboard with the use of such small ball tactics as sacrifice bunts. There were not too many base running problems (we've seen much worse in previous seasons), and while there were some field miscues, there was nothing that turned into being a big problem with bunches of runs being scored. According to the official stats UConn stole eight bases with no one thrown out making the attempt.

John Toppa is supposed to be back next weekend. It will be interesting to see who will end up on the bench. Troy Stefanski only had one hit in the series, but the logical players to take his place in center field would be Chris Winkel or Isaac Feldstein. Even though he has talked about it in interviews, is Coach Penders really ready to put Winkel or Feldstein in center? We shall see.

 

[Pudge]

ok ... what am I missing.

John Toppa is out - and now day to day? And when does Willy Yahn get back?

 

[huskymedic]

ok ... what am I missing.

John Toppa is out - and now day to day? And when does Willy Yahn get back?

Toppa has a small tear in throwing shoulder and wasn't released by medical team for play this weekend (probably cleared for next weekend)

4-6 weeks for Yahn (I'm betting lower end than higher end knowing his work ethics).

 

[huskymedic]