Climbing The Mountain

The last time the baseball team won the Big East Championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament (1994), head coach Jim Penders was a co-captain.

With just nine games left this season against Big East opponents, 13 overall, to determine the fate of the 2008 season the Huskies plunge into their final stretch with a three-game series against West Virginia tonight at 7 :05 p.m. at Hawley Field in Morgantown.

The Huskies (21-22, 7-11 Big East) haven't won a Big East series since taking two-of-three from Villanova at the end of March and Penders feels it's time for the team to buck that trend.

"We're going to have to go out there and do our darnedest to win a series in the first time in about four weeks," Penders said. "We gotta win a series - bottom line."

Because the Big East has traditionally had fewer at-large bids than other collegiate baseball conferences such as the SEC, ACC and Pac-10, every Big East game for the Huskies and their opponents count that much more towards the ultimate goal of playing in the NCAA Tournament, according to Penders.

"We have to focus a little bit more on the conference right now," Penders said. "That's how we get to the postseason right now. We're not going to be an NCAA at-large team. We've got to win the Big East conference to have a chance at playing beyond that."

Currently, UConn stands in ninth place in the Big East, meaning if the season ended today, they would not make it into the eight-team conference tournament. The Huskies, however, are just a half game back of eighth-place Rutgers and one game back of seventh-place South Florida.

Penders hopes for a similar result to last season against West Virginia, when the Huskies used a series win against the Mountaineers (29-11, 8-7) as a catalyst for an 8-3 regular season-ending run after taking two-of-three from the Mountaineers at J.O. Christian Field.

That run propelled UConn into the Big East tournament as a No. 8 seed and the team carried the momentum all the way to the championship game, falling one run short of beating Rutgers and a chance to play in the NCAA tournament.

The Huskies had a successful series last time they played in Morgantown, which according to Penders is a difficult park to play in because of the way the ball carries off the hitters' bats.

"We always seem to play well out there," he said. "We're one of the few conference teams that seems to pitch okay out in Morgantown and the last time we were there we were able to manage a sweep that kind of turned our season."

How the Huskies' pitchers respond to the mountain air this weekend could be the biggest determining factor in the Huskies' success.

Folino, who earned UConn's lone win against St. John's, has posted a 1.80 ERA over his last two starts which has helped solidify his role as UConn's No. 1 starter, according to Penders. Meanwhile, lefthander Mike Hashem earned the lone win in the Seton Hall series and has posted a 2.77 ERA in his last two starts by coming hard after batters according to Penders.

While Folino and Hashem have been strong, Penders is looking for a third pitcher to step up for UConn. Dan Mahoney has run into difficulties in his last two starts for UConn, both losses. Against St. John's, Mahoney gave up eight hits and six earned runs to the Red Storm over 4 1/3 innings. In his most recent start against Seton Hall, Mahoney struggled with his command, surrendering five walks and three runs in just 2 1/3 innings.

"One positive has been [that] Michael Hashem has kind of emerged over the last couple of weeks. John Folino has been doing a good job starting as well," Penders said. "We just need to find one more [starter] and hopefully we're going to find that this weekend."

While the ups and downs of the season have taken their toll on team morale according to second baseman Pierre LePage, he says the team is remaining confident heading into the final stretch despite inconsistencies in performance over the past couple weeks.

"I think any day now it'll fall into place," LePage said. "It's late in the season, but I think it's gonna happen soon."

Contact Mike Northup at Michael.Northup@UConn.edu.