The UConn baseball team faces an elimination game in the American Athletic Conference championship when it takes the field Thursday morning in Clearwater, Fla.
The sixth-seeded Huskies (33-24) fell to No. 3 Tulane 3-1 on Wednesday at Bright House Field and dropped into the losers’ bracket of the double-elimination tournament. UConn plays No. 7 seed UCF Thursday with first pitch at 11 a.m.
Here’s the game details from UConn sports information
The Huskies put baserunners on in eight of nine innings in a seven-hit performance but were unable to come up with hits in runners in scoring position and stranded nine runners on base. Blake Davey (Newport Beach, Calif.) led the Huskies at the dish with a 3-for-4 day and scored the lone run, driven in by Bryan Daniello (Norwalk, Conn.).
Andrew Zapata (Staten Island, N.Y.) took the ball for UConn and lasted four innings, allowing two runs on six hits with no walks and four strikeouts. Patrick Duester made the start for Tulane and fired seven strong innings. Allowing a run on seven hits with four walks and five strikeouts.
The Green Wave struck first with a solo home run from Lex Kaplan in the bottom of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. The Huskies evened the contest in the next half inning when Daniello lifted a dropped sacrifice fly to right center to plate Davey, who led off the inning with a single.
After Duester stranded the bases loaded in the top of the third, the Green Wave went ahead again with an RBI single in the bottom of the frame. Zapata worked out of a jam of his own in the bottom of the fourth, getting a lineout double play with two on and one out to keep it a one-run game.
Sam Nepiarsky (Orange, Conn.) entered out of the pen for UConn to start the fifth and kept the Green Wave off the board until Kaplan’s second home run of the game with two away in the bottom of the eighth made it 3-1. Ian Gibaut entered for Tulane to start the eighth and completed a two-inning save with a scoreless ninth inning.
HUSKIES WIN MAJOR AWARDS
The UConn baseball team earned three major awards from the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA) and placed 10 players on the organization’s All-Region teams, NEIBA announced on Wednesday (May 20). Vinny Siena is the NEIBA Player of the Year, Carson Cross earns Pitcher of the Year and Jim Penders collects Coach of the Year honors, voted on by the New England D1 coaches.
Joining Cross (Brentwood, N.H.) and Siena (Woodbridge, Conn.) on the All-New England first team are designated hitter Joe DeRoche-Duffin (Santa Ana, Calif.), starting pitcher Anthony Kay (Stony Brook, N.Y.), relief pitcher Patrick Ruotolo (Peabody, Mass.) and outfielder Jack Sundberg (Mansfield, Conn.). Outfielder Blake Davey (Newport Beach, Calif.), catcher Max McDowell (North Huntingdon, Pa.) and third baseman Willy Yahn (Sharon, Conn.) earned second team nods and shortstop Bryan Daniello (Norwalk, Conn.) picked up a third team slot to round out the honors.
Penders earns Coach of the Year honors after UConn went 33-23 in the regular season, including a 10-2 mark against New England neighbors. The 12th-year Husky skipper recorded his 400th career win as a head coach on March 31 against Boston College. Under his guidance this season UConn leads The American with a 2.90 ERA and is also first in the league with 376 runs scored.
Cross adds the NEIBA Pitcher of the Year nod to the same award from The American, which he received earlier this week. The right-hander is 10-2 with a 2.18 ERA and is a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy as well as a final watch list member for the Golden Spikes Award and the National Pitcher of the Year award.
The selection of Siena as NEIBA Player of the Year makes it two years running a UConn player has won the award after Bobby Melley (Barnstable, Mass.) took home the honor in 2014. Siena leads UConn and is second in The American with a .358 average and 50 RBIs and is among the top-six nationally in hits (88) and runs scored (61).
– UConn press releases included
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