Baseball: Biggest Takeaways from Opening Day Weekend
As the #HookC boarded its return flight to Storrs on Sunday, they likely did so feeling on top of the world. It was a highly successful weekend indeed for Jim Penders’ squad, as the Huskies knocked off former conference foes South Florida Friday night and Louisville Sunday morning.
Sandwiched around those two wins was a tough loss against Charlotte, but it wasn’t all that surprising that the Huskies came out flat in that game. After all, they were coming off a late-night emotional extra-inning victory the night prior to the early afternoon game against the 49ers.
All in all, no one could have asked for a much better start to the season. The two wins should do wonders for UConn’s RPI, which is more important than ever given the tough weekend the rest of the Big East had.
Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the weekend:
1. Austin Peterson is ace material
Some of the biggest question marks coming into the season surrounded the rotation. Specifically, how would the Huskies withstand the loss of Ben Kasparius and Reggie Crawford? Well, Peterson provides the team with a bona fide ace.
The senior from Chesterton, Ind., absolutely dominated the Bulls on Friday night – and had fun doing it. While he didn’t get the win, Peterson struck out 13 in only 5.2 innings. Seeing as how Peterson’s performance came against a high-profile opponent, his confidence should be soaring.
2. Defense needs work
Assistant coach Chris Podeszwa (Coach Dez) will have a field day over the next two days of practice given the six errors committed by the Huskies during the weekend. While it’s true that UConn was playing on grass for the first time since last season, the bottom line is winning baseball can’t be expected by giving opponents second chances.
The Huskies tried to give away the game Friday night, but props to them for showing resilience and battling back to earn the W.
3. No easy outs
When home runs are provided by the lower-third of the lineup in two consecutive games, that’s evidence of a good offense. UConn might have one of the best catching tandems in the country in Matt Donlan, the Stonehill transfer, and New Fairfield’s own, Matt Garbowski.
Erik Stock is one of the top players in the country hands down, and Ben Huber and Friday night’s hero Casey Dana form a very formidable – and powerful – 3-4-5. And with either Christian Fedko and Kevin Ferrer occupying the six-spot, it doesn’t get any easier.
T.C. Simmons had somewhat of a coming out party over the weekend, netting three hits on Friday and one Sunday. Zach Bushling, who ended up hitting .500 for the weekend, is an on-base machine at the top of the lineup and is the engine that powers the offense.
4. Enzo Stefanoni is just silly
Stefanoni made Louisville’s hitters look foolish on Sunday. He recorded eight strikeouts in 6.2 innings, and is poised to have a big year. The coaching staff absolutely loves this kid, and if he continues to put up performances like he did against the Cardinals, then the Huskies will be favored in two of the three weekend matchups from this point forward.
5. Bullpen looks promising
Cole Chudoba, Ian Cooke, Justin Willis, Garett Coe, Hector Alejandro, Sam Favieri and Jack Sullivan all looked very promising in their season debuts. If this weekend showed anything, it’s that pitching coach Josh coach MacDonald has a number of guys in the pen he can rely on to get outs and keep the game close.
Cooke and Willis were brilliant in closing out the win against the Bulls, while Coe and Alejandro kept the Huskies in it against Charlotte with five innings of scoreless baseball. Sullivan was sensational against Louisville.
6. Thankful for Chris Jones
Special tip of the hat to Chris Jones, the UConn baseball Sports Information Director and voice of the Huskies for his efforts this weekend. Between broadcasting the game via Instagram Live and calling it on the radio, Jonesy helped make it a special weekend for all the HookC faithful not able to attend the games in person.
