Huskies Downed by Late Heroics for Second Consecutive Day 

Boxscore(.pdf)

JACKSONVILLE, FL (March 7) -- Nate Whitney knocked in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning, as Illinois State rallied to defeat the University of Connecticut baseball team 12-11 at the Kennel Club Classic in Jacksonville, Fla.  With the loss, the Huskies drop to 0-5 on the year, while the Redbirds improve to 3-1. 

The Huskies built an 8-3 through six innings, however Joe Burke came in and hit a pinch-hit two-run homer, his first as a a Redbird, to bring Illinois State to within three at 8-5.

Jeff Hourigan (Beacon Falls, CT) was solid in his second career start for the Huskies.  The junior pitched 7+ innings, gave up four runs and struck out seven without yielding a walk.  Hourigan departed after hitting a batter and giving up a hit in the eighth and was relieved by Brendan McGinn (Tolland, CT).  Potvin got the last two outs of the eighth inning via the strikeout and struck out the lead off man in the ninth, but walked the next three batters to set the stage for Whitney and the Redbirds to take 12-11 victory.

Kyle Messineo (Cedar Grove, NJ) led off for the Huskies and went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and a pair of RBI.  Both Hourigan and Matt Untiet (Berlin, CT) hit home runs for UConn, helping the Huskies build the 8-3 lead.  

The Huskies will square off with Butler on Monday Mach 8 at 3:30 p.m. in Jacksonville, Fla.