The Daily Campus

Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Matt Lin The Huskies can push their record past .500 for the first time this season with a win today vs. Yale.

After a quick one-day road trip to Worcester, Mass., the UConn baseball team will begin a long home-stand that will see the Huskies (10-10) play nine of their next 10 games at J.O. Christian field. The lone road game during that stretch will be an in-state match-up less than an hour away from campus against Hartford.

Things will get started today, when the Huskies face Yale at 3 p.m. in their second home game of the season.

The Huskies are coming off three straight wins, most recently a 10-3 drubbing of Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., Tuesday.

Yale (6-12) is riding a two-game losing streak and is currently tied with Columbia for the second-worst record in the Ivy League.

The Bulldogs are led offensively by slugging catcher Ryan Lavarnway, who is hitting .383 with eight home runs and 22 RBI so far. Lavarnway was named a third-team All-American by Baseball America in 2007 after leading the NCAA with a .878 slugging percentage and setting numerous school records including home runs (14) and RBI (55).

While playing at home is certainly welcomed, there is one slight disadvantage to J.O. Christian field at the moment according to head coach Jim Penders.

Penders was a little disappointed with the dry field conditions in Monday's 4-2 win over UMass, but conceded that it would be an issue that the team had little control over and would have to deal with for the time being until the weather gets warmer.

"The university can't turn the water on … it's so dusty and you can't turn the water on because the pipes will burst when they freeze," Penders said Monday. "It's playing in tough conditions, but nothing that we haven't played on before."

UMass had a very tough time on the field in Monday's game, as balls thrown in the dirt led to two errors and missed opportunities to throw out UConn's Pierre LePage and Elliot Glynn on a steal attempt.

The Huskies' bats will try to heat up once again against the Bulldogs, who have allowed seven or more runs to their opponents in three of their last four games. The Huskies are 7-2 this year when they score seven or more runs in a game.

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