Improved Huskies Host Struggling Sacred Heart

Sometimes, it takes a little while for a team to get back in the swing of things - literally.

Such was the case for the baseball team over Spring Break, as they managed six wins in eight games, including a two-games-to-one series win over Big East foe Georgetown.

"The game is meant to be played every day," said head coach Jim Penders. "The best thing to do is play, and the guys kind of become their own coach during the course of a game - making adjustments - and that's what hitting is: just making a series of adjustments when necessary."

The Huskies will look to continue improving when they face their first in-state opponent, Sacred Heart, today at 3:30 p.m. at the Ballpark at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport.

Over the break, the Huskies looked like polar opposites from the squad that started the season 0-6, which scored only 11 runs during the first few weeks of the season. Offense was in abundance in the teams' trip to down south, where they averaged 8.75 runs per game, including routs of Pennsylvania and Penn State 18-0 and 14-6, respectively.

"Our guys did a much better job [with their hitting] toward the end of the trip," Penders said.

"[They were] just making those subtle adjustments on their own, figuring things out - figuring their swings out … and getting the job done."

Against Georgetown, UConn took part in back-to-back extra-inning affairs March 15 and 16.

The Huskies won both - 2-0 in 10 innings and 9-7 in 11, but Penders said the games could have been won earlier with a few clutch hits.

"But they gave us a couple opportunities and we took advantage," Penders said.

"So I was happy to see us come away with, you know, winning two out of three on the weekend."

Pender said the conference wins to end break gave the Huskies valuable momentum going into the heart of their season.

"[The wins] certainly don't hurt," Penders said. "It's something you can look back on and say 'Hey, we've been here before.'"

Their 9-7 win over the Hoyas was UConn's first come-from-behind win of the season.

The Huskies will now take their game back to Connecticut, where they face a Pioneers team that is coming off three straight losses, and has only one win all season, which came at home against Fairfield.

Sacred Heart (1-12) will be looking to get an offense back on track that has only managed more than two runs in five times in 2008.

The Pioneers season resembles the beginning of the Huskies year, where trips to the south facing quality opponents left them with a sour taste in their mouth upon the trip back north.

"You know, they've played some pretty good people early on," Penders said. "We don't really look at the record as indicative of their team.

"They always play us hard."

Through 13 games in 2008 the Pioneers pitching staff has an ERA of nearly eight, and had given up double-digit runs five times, including 19 to Stephen F. Austin on March 6. Ryan Lynch leads the Pioneers in ERA with 3.38, despite a 2-0 record.

Jeff Hanson leads a struggling Pioneers offense with a .368 average and two home runs. Paul Schmidt leads Sacred Heart in RBI with seven, despite a .176 batting average.

Contact Jim Merritt at James.Merritt@UConn.edu.