Men - UConn shortstop Bryan Padilla has solidified infield for super regional-bound Huskies (Amore @ Courant) | The Boneyard

Men UConn shortstop Bryan Padilla has solidified infield for super regional-bound Huskies (Amore @ Courant)

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->Bryan Padilla, who grew up on the baseball diamonds in Brooklyn, went to a baseball camp at La Salle Academy and found an older, taller kid taking ground balls at shortstop.

His name? James Bouknight.

He once told me he was going to pick baseball over basketball, believe it or not,” Padilla said. “And he was good.”

Bouknight has said baseball is his first love and sometime touts, maybe joking, his untapped potential. But soon afterward Bouknight got serious about basketball and he ended up helping UConn return to the NCAA Tournament and get the program back in the business of developing NBA lottery picks.

Padilla, meanwhile, went to Poly Prep Country Day and met up with another future Husky, shortstop Anthony Prato, who eventually showed him around on his visit to Storrs. “I instantly fell in love with the place,” Padilla said.

So Padilla followed in Prato’s footsteps, came to UConn to make his mark in baseball and, as a redshirt freshman, has made a huge difference since entering the starting lineup. <-

-> “His biggest problem a year ago was he wouldn’t make the routine play,” Penders said. “He’s made the outstanding play, going to his left or his right. And one error would become two, and it would snowball and he couldn’t get it back. Now he can separate that and treat an error as a fluke. He just seized the position.” <-
 
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->Bryan Padilla, who grew up on the baseball diamonds in Brooklyn, went to a baseball camp at La Salle Academy and found an older, taller kid taking ground balls at shortstop.

His name? James Bouknight.

He once told me he was going to pick baseball over basketball, believe it or not,” Padilla said. “And he was good.”

Bouknight has said baseball is his first love and sometime touts, maybe joking, his untapped potential. But soon afterward Bouknight got serious about basketball and he ended up helping UConn return to the NCAA Tournament and get the program back in the business of developing NBA lottery picks.

Padilla, meanwhile, went to Poly Prep Country Day and met up with another future Husky, shortstop Anthony Prato, who eventually showed him around on his visit to Storrs. “I instantly fell in love with the place,” Padilla said.

So Padilla followed in Prato’s footsteps, came to UConn to make his mark in baseball and, as a redshirt freshman, has made a huge difference since entering the starting lineup. <-

-> “His biggest problem a year ago was he wouldn’t make the routine play,” Penders said. “He’s made the outstanding play, going to his left or his right. And one error would become two, and it would snowball and he couldn’t get it back. Now he can separate that and treat an error as a fluke. He just seized the position.” <-


No question in my mind, the move of making Padilla a regular in the lineup was big this season. The move of Padilla to shortstop took Zach Bushling off that position. Bushling's game certainly has positive qualities, but his defense wasn't a big strength at SS. Putting Padilla in at SS very much improved the defensive play at that position for UConn. That isn't to say Padilla didn't make mistakes in the field, but UConn was better off having him play the position. As Padilla grew into the position and got used to playing regularly, the UConn infield started turning double plays, something that was pretty rare early in the season. Certainly helped that over the course of the season Padilla provided good offense as well to the lineup. No question in my mind that Bushling was better off at 3B, it is something I have thought and mentioned on these baseball threads pretty much ever since Bushling became a regular in the UConn lineup.
 

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