UConn baseball opens Big East tournament in style
May 27—The UConn baseball team beat the rain and Georgetown Thursday.
Because of the rain, the Huskies have a day off today.
Austin Peterson pitched seven innings of four-hit shutout ball as top-seeded UConn advanced to the winners bracket final of the Big East tournament by defeating No. 4 Gerogetown 4-0 in first-round action at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio.
Thursday's second game between second-seeded Creighton and No. 3 Xavier was postponed due to rain and was scheduled to start today at 2:30 p.m. The Hoyas will play an elimination game against the loser of today's first game at 6:30 p.m.
The Huskies (44-13) will play the winner between the Bluejays and the Musketeers Saturday at a time to be determined. That winner advances to the championship round of the double-elimination event.
Georgetown (32-23) swept UConn in a three-game series to complete the regular season last weekend but could not get anything going against Peterson. He struck out eight to put his season total at 129, second-most in UConn single-season history behind Colin McLaughlin's 139 in 1979. He also became the seventh UConn pitcher to record at least 10 wins in a season.
Korey Morton's two-run single in the fourth inning gave the Huskies the lead. An RBI double in the fifth by David Smith made it 3-0 and the final run came home in the sixth on T.C. Simmons' run-scoring double.
Brendan O'Donnell relieved Peterson and struck out Jake Hyde for his only out of the eighth and Devin Kirby finished it off by recording the final five outs.
The victory was No. 650 at UConn for veteran coach Jim Penders.
Morton finished with two hits for the Huskies while Andrew Ciufo had two hits for Georgetown.
ECSU SOFTBALL. The Eastern Connecticut State University softball team's run in the NCAA Division III national tournament is on hold.
The three-seeded Warriors (43-5) and No. 6-seed Trine (32-11) played for about two hours Thursday before heavy rains in Salem, Virginia deemed the field unplayable with Eastern coming to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning in a 2-2 tie.
The game was subsequently suspended, and the teams were set to resume play Friday morning at a time that the games committee determined. All tournament games must be played to completion.
The Eastern-Trine winner will take on second-seeded Salisbury (42-6) today at a time not yet determined while the loser will meet Millikin (37-8). Salisbury posted a come-from-behind, 6-5 win in nine innings Thursday. Top-seeded and top-ranked Christopher Newport also came from behind to defeat No. 8 WPI 8-6.
All-American sophomore Alexis Michon gave up two runs on two hits while striking out eight in 4Î innings before giving way to senior Morgan Bolduk of Vernon.
Scarlett Ellikott's solo home run gave Trine a third-inning lead. Alexis Tyrrell's RBI single in its half of the third got Eastern even and the Warriors took their first lead in the fourth on Carley Stoker's RBI single. Ainsley Phillips' run-scoring double for the Thunder made it 2-2 in the fifth.
UCONN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL. A season ago, UConn played one exhibition against a Division II opponent (Fort Hays State) while having a closed preseason scrimmage against a Division I team (Boston College) to get ready for the season.
It appears the Huskies will use the same model this coming season.
UConn will host Division II Kutztown University of Pennsylvania for an exhibition game.
Kutztown was 26-7 a season ago, losing in the NCAA Division II tournament first round to Charleston (West Virginia). It played Division I Monmouth in an exhibition a season ago and lost 74-60.
The Golden Bears are coached by Janet Malouf, a 1988 Rutgers graduate with 415 wins at Kutztown in 27 seasons. Like UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey, Malouf has been inducted into the Rutgers Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Huskies were 30-6 a season ago in an injury-plagued campaign, winning the Big East regular season and tournament titles before advancing to their 14th consecutive NCAA Final Four. They defeated Stanford in the semifinals before falling to South Carolina in the national championship game at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
UConn has regular-season games set with Texas, North Carolina State, and South Carolina at home and road games against Notre Dame and Tennessee. It will also take part in the PK Legacy tournament in Oregon and face Florida State in the Hall of Fame Showcase at Mohegan Sun Arena. Two non-conference openings remain. The dates for the 20-game Big East schedule are not yet finalized.
