UConn Hoping to End Losing Streak

Matt McDonald will be handed the ball today with the task of helping the Huskies bounce back from a week that handed them four losses in six games.

But McDonald will have another mission against Fairfield - redeeming himself.

One week removed from a two-and-two-thirds-innings effort in which he gave up seven hits and seven earned runs against Northeastern April 14, a game that ended in a 9-6 UConn loss, McDonald will take the mound today against the Stags (11-24) at 3:30 p.m. at Alumni Diamond.

McDonald was distraught following the effort against Northeastern in a 9-6 loss, but his coach is confident in throwing the starter right back on the horse.

"We're going to run Matty McDonald back in there," said Huskies head coach Jim Penders. "He didn't have a good outing at all last week against Northeastern but he had an excellent outing the week before that at UMass."

Penders and the Huskies (20-21) are hoping for a repeat of the April 8 performance against the Minutemen, where McDonald pitched six strong innings giving up two runs on four hits, while striking out four and walking none.

The start was McDonald's first after being placed on the shelf after a right-knee injury forced him to miss two weeks. Ironically, the injury occurred against the Minutemen March 24.

McDonald will take his game on the road for the first time since starting at Georgetown March 14, where he went two and one-third innings, giving up five earned runs on five hits.

"Hopefully going on the road will be a nice thing for him to kind of get back on the bean and throw well," Penders said. "He's certainly shown that he's capable of throwing quality starts."

The Huskies could use a quality start from McDonald today at Fairfield, as they have seen little consistency out of the pitching staff during the last few games. Only Mike Hashem managed to pitch seven innings in their 11-5 win Sunday - the Huskies' only win in the weekend series against Seton Hall.

Friday and Saturday's games saw John Folino and Dan Mahoney pitch five and one-third innings and two and two-thirds innings, respectively.

"In baseball you can't have a long memory," Penders said. "You've got to be able to forget the bad ones early … you know, we didn't play well last week. We hopefully learn from that and I'm just glad that we played well [Sunday]."

Penders said two rallies Sunday - in the fourth and seventh innings - showed the Huskies are getting back on track. During the two innings, the Huskies scored 10 runs and went on to outscore the Pirates 10-2 in the game's final five innings.

"The guys started to believe a little bit, Penders said. "We finally competed well with the latter half of that game."

With the small amount of momentum gained with their play Sunday, the Huskies will travel to face a Stags team that was beaten badly by UConn April 3.

The Huskies won that game 14-5, highlighted by an eight-run seventh inning and grand slam from shortstop Mike Olt.

Trent DeLazzer pitched six and two-thirds innings giving up four runs to earn the win.

But Penders isn't going to let earlier success dictate the outcome of this game, as baseball is a game where any team can win any day.

"You run up against a good pitcher and it could be a tough day no matter who you're playing, Penders said. "Down there they played us tough last year - remember we had to kind of battle for the game. I would expect the same thing again this year.

"I'd expect them to play a little better and be ready for us."

Contact Jim Merritt at

James.Merritt@UConn.edu.