2008 Woodie Awards
Storming Into St. John's
Baseball
Jim Merritt
Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: Sports
|
They'll need every bit of it this weekend.
UConn (17-15, 5-7 Big East) will travel to Queens, N.Y., to take on first place No. 22 St. John's (23-7, 7-2) at Jack Kaiser Stadium Friday at 3 p.m. The series will continue Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. and noon, respectively.
The Red Storm come into the series on a 16-3 clip, winning all three of their conference series, including a sweep of Rutgers March 20-22.
"They're obviously the class of the league right now," said Huskies head coach Jim Penders. "We're going to have to play really well to go down there and have success."
Success is just what the Red Storm has been having recently in the Big East. St. John's finished 40-17 in 2007 including the Big East Championship, where they were upset by an eighth-seeded UConn team that eventually lost to Rutgers in the finals.
Despite their success in the teams' two previous meetings, the Huskies will surely be facing the toughest league competition of the year, and last year's accomplishments won't ensure victory this weekend.
"Mentally tough," said outfielder Harold Brantley Jr. "We've got to be mentally tough going up there and believing in ourselves because, honestly, we have the talent and the caliber to be one of the top teams in the Big East. We just got to go out there and play like it."
The Huskies showed their mettle during the week against the Minutemen and Rams, averaging 12 runs per game in the two wins.
The defensive woes looked to be resolved - at least for now - with the Huskies committing only two errors.
"We're just going to plan on continuing it," Brantley said. "It's good that we have that momentum going into this weekend with St. John's."
"We want to punch [St. John's] first and not look back," said catcher Doug Elliot. "We got on our heels this past weekend against Cincinnati and got swept."
Friday, the Huskies will face one the best southpaws in the conference in Scott Barnes, who is 4-1 with a 4.58 ERA in seven starts. Barnes is coming off a win over Louisville where he pitched six and one-third innings while striking out nine.
Be the first to comment on this story