Men UConn 2024 Opening Weekend @ USF Tournament (Friday 2/16/24 Dblhdr vs. Louisville @2p & USF @6p and Saturday 2/17/24 vs. Indiana State @Noon).

[Bomber36]

6-7-8-9 coming up for USF. Close them out.

Let’s leave 9 outta this.

 

[rich1122]

Afim is the closer today

 

[HuskeyRPT]

That slurve/ slider was nasty in the first AB of the inning for Afthim

 

[huskymedic]

Buckle up… Brady Afthim comes in for B9 up 2-1.

Afthim closes them out 1-2-3.

Arms were there today.

 

[Bomber36]

Nice opening day for the boys.

 

[uconnbaseball]

Nice sweep today. Beat ISU tomorrow!

 

[HuskeyRPT]

2 GREAT wins today!!

 

[huskymedic]

Afthim closes them out 1-2-3.

Arms were there today.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[businesslawyer]

Just a great pitching display against quality teams. Whatever else you have on the roster, starting pitching overcomes all. 1 run in 11 plus innings is getting it done.

 

[Rdkid]

Internal competition is good, a bunch of guys getting shots to show what they’ve got. Afthim’s stuff is up a tick.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[MarkyMark]

Trip report - good crowd for both games all general admission seating.

Louisville
1) Cookie was spot on. 93-94 fb hitting 95 when needed. Threw breaking stuff for strikes (it wasn’t spinning) and was pitching with pace As opposed to laboring. Also pitched with emotion but it was controlled. Happy for him.
2) defense was very good in this game. Minick impressed me at 3B in both games with his arm. Daniels very good at 2B as well per usual.
3) im not a fan of the starting lineup. I don’t think Morton is a lead off hitter and I don’t like bunching all the speed together (Kron, Daniels , Morton and TC). They’ll get it sorted out but just doesn’t feel right.
4) Kron needs to get bunts down or it’s tough to keep him in lineup.
5) too many low quality ABs in both games. Weird because they battled counts well just didn’t finish ABs. They desperately need Broadhurst bat in lineup.
6) played long ball to get back in the game and Morton did a nice job with 2 strikes serving it out to CF for walkoff. Great win coming back like that.
7) I don’t see it with Van Emon yet but hope I’m wrong. Only innning of both games they got into trouble was with Van Emon and Mayer (2HBP and a walk)
8) Studley a vocal leader for this team it was very noticeable.

USF
1) Coe was solid and pitched well. Gave up the HR and that was just about it. I thought Penders took him out at the perfect time against the guy who hit HR earlier. Tommy E also solid looked and poised. Went after hitters and threw strikes with confidence good to see. He was the bridge to Afthim. Afthim was nasty. Throwing gas with the big bender. We have a closer. Other than 1 inning pitching was lights out today in both games. Nice to watch where every inning isn’t a high wire act. Radar gun wasnt posted for uconn pitchers but was for USF.
2) 3 errors in second game but weird ones. Coe into CF, Dalena drops a ball bringing it up and Tammaro dropped a line drive. Defense shouldn’t be a problem this year it will be fine.
3) again too many low quality ABs. Keep in mind USF and Louisville pitching were both poor last year (USF team ERA was ~7). Did it improve this much? Ball wasn’t carrying in the second game at all.

In summary great to get the sweep to give this team confidence.
Get the lineup sorted, get broadhurst back and they have a chance to be a very interesting team. pitching was a pleasure to watch.

see if they can squeeze the game in tomorrow with rain in forecast.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

 

[dbmill]

There has been a lot of debate on these threads over who should be in the weekend starting rotation for UConn. Given their solid work yesterday, I would think it is likely that Ian Cooke and Garrett Coe will continue to be starting pitchers next weekend.

 

[MarkyMark]

If they started this game at 10am they would have gotten it in its just cloudy right now. There’s a system coming in from Mexico arriving early pm that will cause problems. If that system slides north a bit they have a shot. Im not a weather expert so who knows.

Nice to have 2 well pitched games, bullpen not spent and SQuigs waiting.
Would like to see the bats get going today and see some sustained rallies.

follow-up notes from last night : did not see Padilla in the dugout, Broadhurst was dressed and ready to go. Malcom was swinging a bat to pinch hit in game 1 but didn’t happen.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[dbmill]

If they started this game at 10am they would have gotten it in its just cloudy right now. There’s a system coming in from Mexico arriving early pm that will cause problems. If that system slides north a bit they have a shot. Im not a weather expert so who knows.

Nice to have 2 well pitched games, bullpen not spent and SQuigs waiting.
Would like to see the bats get going today and see some sustained rallies.

follow-up notes from last night : did not see Padilla in the dugout, Broadhurst was dressed and ready to go. Malcom was swinging a bat to pinch hit in game 1 but didn’t happen.

Yesterday during the game broadcasts, Chris Jones said that Padilla recently had surgery for his injury and he was not available to play this weekend. Jones said that Padilla might be available to play next weekend.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[dbmill]

Top 1st, Simmons with a 1 out walk, gets picked off base to end the inning. Scoreless inning for the UConn offense. No score.

 

[uconnbaseball]

Offense does do much in the top of the first, 0-0. Get 'em Quiggers.

 

[dbmill]

Chris Jones says it is beginning to rain.

 

[uconnbaseball]

Quiggers throwing 92-94, as is the ISU pitcher.

0-0 after one.