Freshman All-American Mike Olt was a bright spot in the infield for the Huskies in 2008.

Matt McDonald and the UConn pitching staff will try to enjoy a healthier, more successful 2009.

2008 Filled With Ups, Downs For Baseball

By: Mike Northup

Posted: 6/9/08

Just a year removed from nearly winning the Big East Championship, the baseball team took a noticeable step back in the win column in 2008 campaign, its fifth season under head coach Jim Penders, as injuries and inconsistent play dogged the Huskies from start to finish.

While UConn finished with a 27-28 record, its first losing record since Penders' first year at the helm, the emergence of a young core of everyday players in the wake of injuries and departures is leaving Penders optimistic that the dip won't be an extended one.

"This was our fifth year and it was probably, on paper, the first year that we took a step backward in terms of the won-loss record," Penders said. "But I think we were able to take a step forward with the finish that we had."

A trio of freshmen anchored the infield alongside senior captain Pat Mahoney and answered any and all question marks the Huskies had heading into the season regarding infield play after star Dennis Donovan's departure.

In particular, shortstop Mike Olt and second baseman Pierre LePage emerged as budding stars for UConn throughout the season.

Olt, recently named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball set a UConn single-season record with 61 RBIs, while smacking a team-leading 13 home runs.

LePage, meanwhile, turned in gritty performance after gritty performance on his way to a team-high .341 batting average and a team-high tying 19 steals, which helped earn him first team All-New England honors.

"Looking at Pierre LePage and Mike Olt up the middle, it's hard not to be excited given what they brought us as freshmen," Penders said.

Freshman first baseman Mike Nemeth earned second team All-New England honors along with Olt and sophomore outfielder Peter Fatse.

The winning streaks were few and far between for the Huskies, as they never won more than five games in a row at any point. Conference play was especially unkind to UConn, as the team won just three of nine Big East series on the season, finishing with an 11-16 conference record. That mark was good for ninth-place in the conference, just barely missing the Big East tournament.

"There were some plays during the year where we came up just a little bit short," Penders said. "Dropped a ball, maybe had an error, maybe kicked something, maybe didn't drive in a run, didn't pitch when we had to.

"There's a million things that you can look back on and dwell upon, but at the end of the day though, all those things combine and turn into a below average season."

While there were many problems facing the young team, the most frequent in Penders' eyes was lack of consistent pitching and team depth on the mound.

"We just didn't pitch real well and that was kind of the theme of the year," Penders said. "We never really recovered from losing our number one and number two starters to surgeries. They were gone all year and we had guys who were certainly talented, but weren't experienced. We kind of got burned and took our lumps."

Due to offseason Tommy John surgery to Greg Nappo and an early season elbow injury to Bob Van Woert, UConn started off the season trying to come together in the wake of losing their top two starting pitchers.

Going into the 2008 campaign, the Huskies had returned just five of their 34 wins to their pitching staff from the 2007 season, with the biggest subtractions coming from losing Mike Tarsi to the Major League Baseball Draft, Brendan McGinn to graduation and Nappo and Van Woert to injuries.

While it took the greater part of the season, the Huskies finally got some quality starts when freshman Mike Hashem (2-3, 4.20 ERA) and junior John Folino (4-4, 5.02 ERA) emerged big-time as weekend starters late in the season for UConn, while Ted Hurvul and Doug Jennings showed promise out of the bullpen.

Even though the experience should prove beneficial in the long run, Penders felt it may have hurt some of the younger guys to be forced into more difficult games before they were ready to take on tougher opponents.

"In some ways it was a negative in that we had to pitch some rookies on the weekend that would have benefited from trying to go out and beat some of our non-conference competition first," Penders said. "All of a sudden they're thrown in the fire and we're asking them to beat Notre Dame and St. John's instead of beating Rhode Island and Quinnipiac and Central Connecticut [on] Wednesdays."

The Huskies were also hurt by inconsistency behind the plate. Doug Elliot showed promise offensively and Joe Pavone defensively, but neither could put things together for a long enough time to effectively fill the void left behind the dish by former star captain Larry Day.

"The catching was one of our weak points," Penders said. "We never really had an everyday Big East catcher that we could rely upon, although guys showed flashes of what they could be back there."

Penders also felt that outfield defense was a considerable liability for the Huskies, as he mixed-and-matched freshman Elliot Glynn and sophomore Harold Brantley, Jr. and senior Gordon Stevens into the center and rightfield positions with mixed results.

While the Huskies will lose a great deal of veteran leadership next year with four key-contributing seniors leaving and potentially two more top players in top reliever David Erickson and Folino leaving via the draft, infielder Dale Brannon has impressed Penders and the coaches with his knowledge of the game and leadership abilities. Penders didn't rule out any of his younger players playing a bigger part in the clubhouse next year either.

"There's no rule that says a sophomore can't step up into a leadership role next year, either," Penders said.

With seven of the Huskies' top nine batters returning along with the majority of the pitching staff returning plus the anticipated returns of Nappo and Van Woert, Penders feels that the team can build a great deal off of 2008 and have a much more successful 2009 season.

"I think the future's very bright and we kind of took a step backward in order to take a step forward next year," Penders said. "We probably took some lumps by playing some of the young guys, but I think that's going to pay big dividends next year and beyond."

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