UConn Defeats Jacksonville in Florida

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JACKSONVILLE, FL (March 9) –  Junior Jeff Hourigan went 3-for-4 and hit his second home run of the season and the University of Connecticut baseball team scored three clutch runs in the top of the ninth to take a 13-12 victory from Jacksonville on Tuesday evening at the Kennel Club Classic in Jacksonville, Fla. 

Tim Norton started the game for UConn and pitched five and two-thirds innings, and surrendered 11 runs on 11 hits.  Ryan Christopher made his first appearance for the Huskies in style, pitching two hitless innings.  Christopher did walk three batters though, and gave up one run.  Joe Smeraglino blanked the Dolphins for the final one and one-third to earn the victory. 

The Huskies seized control of the contest in the ninth inning.  With UConn trailing 12-10 in the last frame senior Marc Peluso laid down a sacrifice bunt that advanced Jeff Hourigan and Mike Leonard to second and third respectively.  Freshman standout Matt Untiet lined a double to left that scored Hourigan.  UConn would knot the game up at 12 when Leonard scored on an error by JU catcher Alex Jamieson and took the lead for good when sophomore Kyle Messineo drew a bases loaded walk. 

Smeraglino walked one in the ninth, but got Larry Best to ground out to second for the third out.

The Huskies stormed out of the gate, scoring five runs in the first frame highlighted by a two run blast from Maler.  However, UConn gave back three runs in the bottom half of the first and fell behind 11-9 after six. 

The Huskies are back in action on Wednesday, March 10 when they take on North Florida at 7:00 pm in Jacksonville.