Ever since I started following UConn baseball, the strength of the team has consistently been its starting pitching. This has simply not been the case this season. It is difficult to go on a long winning streak when your starting pitching has been rather lackluster, as it has been for UConn this year. A quality start is usually defined as going 6 innings or more while giving up no more than 3 runs. By that definition, Mason Feole has 4 quality starts, and Jeff Kersten has 2.
The starting pitching has not been eating up innings either. Both Feole and Kersten have gone 6+ innings in 4 starts each. None of the other starters have gone 6+ innings this season. Colby Dunlop has gone 5+ innings 3 times, Kenny Haus 2 times, and Jimmy Wang 1 time. That's a lot of innings for the bullpen to take over, especially for a relief corps that has been reliant on mainly three guys, plus Karl Johnson who has had some terrific bullpen stints as well some awful ones (especially recently).
Also thought I'd throw in the ERA's of all the pitchers who have started games for UConn this season. Relief appearances have not been separated out:
Feole - 3.44
Kersten - 4.57
Wang - 4.23
Dunlop - 5.75
Haus - 6.75
Simeone - 5.00
Before Feole's last start, his ERA was in the 3.90 range. If Feole is able to come close to the form he showed this past Friday for the rest of the season, that would obviously help UConn a lot. But UConn either needs either more effective starting pitching, or for a couple more relievers to contribute consistently to the cause in order to get a winning streak going.