The best of UConn baseball | Page 2 | The Boneyard

The best of UConn baseball

Melley had some great years and gave us some awesome memories.
 
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Have to think LJ Mazzilli will be in the top spot on this list, which starts in 2012 with Jeff Hourigan's arrival as a coach at UConn. George Springer will no doubt make another list.
 
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huskymedic said:
Gonna slide this in here...
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Good to see Anthony Aceto remembered by UConn baseball, even though he was gone from the team after his sophomore year. He was with the team just at the time when I was really starting to get into UConn baseball, when I was starting to do silly things like study the team roster.
 
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>4. Bobby Melley, Dan Hurley, BC High (2009-2012)

Despite being relegated to a wood bat for a large share of his career from playing in the Catholic Conference, Melley still managed to put up explosive numbers throughout his career.

Over 59 games, Melley slashed .435/.569/.924 with 21 doubles, nine triples, nine home runs and 57 RBI. Melley led the Catholic Conference in batting average on a pair of occasions including at a .619 clip in league play in 2011. The Barnstable native was a two-time Boston Herald All-Scholastic.

Where Are They Now: Melley continued his playing career at UConn where he helped the Huskies reach a pair of NCAA Regionals over his four-year career. Melley was drafted in the 34th round by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2016 before finishing his professional career after the 2017 season. He is now an assistant coach at Manhattan College.<
 
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huskymedic said:
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Mike Olt was the UConn shortstop during his freshman year in 2008 and at the start of the 2009 season. During the 2009 season he got hurt and missed a number of games, at which point freshman Nick Ahmed took over at shortstop. When Olt returned from his injury, he was moved to 3B with Ahmed remaining at SS. That Olt started out at SS before moving to 3B to keep Ahmed in the lineup at SS gives an idea of Olt's defensive ability, that he was good enough to play a solid shortstop for UConn as well.

While I had been periodically listening to UConn baseball games on WHUS since the middle of the 2000 decade, the injury and move of Olt from SS to 3B is one of my first real memories of UConn baseball, and it is right at the start of my blossoming obsession with UConn baseball over the next several seasons.
 
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dbmill said:
Mike Olt was the UConn shortstop during his freshman year in 2008 and at the start of the 2009 season. During the 2009 season he got hurt and missed a number of games, at which point freshman Nick Ahmed took over at shortstop. When Olt returned from his injury, he was moved to 3B with Ahmed remaining at SS. That Olt started out at SS before moving to 3B to keep Ahmed in the lineup at SS gives an idea of Olt's defensive ability, that he was good enough to play a solid shortstop for UConn as well.

While I had been periodically listening to UConn baseball games on WHUS since the middle of the 2000 decade, the injury and move of Olt from SS to 3B is one of my first real memories of UConn baseball, and it is right at the start of my blossoming obsession with UConn baseball over the next several seasons.
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To be honest, it was more so that Ahmed earned the spot. The kid just worked harder than anyone from the day he stepped on the campus and the Coaches have always relayed that message. Not taking anything away from Mike because he was just an absolute stud but his freshman class came in to the 2008 season without many real established starting roles filled from 2007. The 2007 class graduated a lot of 2-3 year starters with the likes of Mike Untiet, Larry Day and Dennis Donovan and there weren't many guys who had solidified roles coming out of 2007. So that 2008 spring, I think the majority of the guys in the lineup were freshman and sophomores. Mike was the best athlete and like you see in little league, was defaulted to SS with Pat Mahaney at 3rd. So when Mike when out in 2009 and forced Nick into the lineup, he took it and ran with it and it was an easy decision to flip Mike to 3rd. Which worked well for him because a corner spot was his more projectable position to pro ball anyway.
 
HookC22 said:
To be honest, it was more so that Ahmed earned the spot. The kid just worked harder than anyone from the day he stepped on the campus and the Coaches have always relayed that message. Not taking anything away from Mike because he was just an absolute stud but his freshman class came in to the 2008 season without many real established starting roles filled from 2007. The 2007 class graduated a lot of 2-3 year starters with the likes of Mike Untiet, Larry Day and Dennis Donovan and there weren't many guys who had solidified roles coming out of 2007. So that 2008 spring, I think the majority of the guys in the lineup were freshman and sophomores. Mike was the best athlete and like you see in little league, was defaulted to SS with Pat Mahaney at 3rd. So when Mike when out in 2009 and forced Nick into the lineup, he took it and ran with it and it was an easy decision to flip Mike to 3rd. Which worked well for him because a corner spot was his more projectable position to pro ball anyway.
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Before I posted my previous message, I looked at some box scores from the 2009 season. Before Olt got hurt, Ahmed wasn't an every day player, but he was getting playing time at 3B. As a freshman, Ahmed was in the playing mix at the start of the season, and that says something right there. What Ahmed did while playing shortstop after Olt got hurt kept him in the lineup. Like Willy Yahn several years later, when Ahmed got a chance to play regularly and show what he could do at a key defensive position, he made such an impression that the coaching staff wasn't going to take him out of the lineup.
 
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huskymedic said:
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A nice bonus, Coach Penders talking through his picks. Penders talking baseball is always a bonus. Penders says he has more than ten moments that he is going to talk about, and he isn't going to rank them. Come to think about it, Penders may be raising the bar for when Chris Jones comes up with his picks on his favorite games the he has broadcasted.
 
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