Four UConn Pitchers Combine to Shutout UMass, 9-0

Boxscore [.pdf]

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (March 22, 2005) - Four University of Connecticut baseball pitchers combined hold the Minutemen to just five singles as UConn shut out the University of Massachusetts by a score of 9-0 on Tuesday afternoon at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Conn. It was the third game in which the Huskies have blanked an opponent this season. The victory is the seventh for UConn in its last eight games as the team improves to 12-4 this season, while UMass falls to 3-10.

Junior left-hander Brendan McGinn (Tolland, Conn.) started for the Huskies, pitching four innings with five strikeouts and two hits. Freshman David Erickson (Stratford, Conn.) threw the following three innings, fanning six while limiting the Minutemen to three hits. Senior captain Jeff Hourigan (Beacon Falls, Conn.), who started the game as the designated hitter, moved onto the mound in the eighth, and freshman first baseman Matt Karl (Wallingford, Conn.) completed the game, pitching the ninth.

The UConn bats got an early lead, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first inning. Junior Austin Wasserman (Nashua, N.H.) walked to lead off the inning, and then advanced to second on a single by senior Tony Mallozzi (Westboro, Mass.). Junior Bryan Maler (Ansonia, Conn.) hit into a fielder's choice, with Mallozzi out at second and Wasserman moving to third.

Hourigan then hit his fourth double of the season to clear the bases and give the Huskies a 2-0 lead. Karl scored Hourigan on the next at-bat when he slammed UConn's seventh triple this year. Karl then came home on a sac fly by senior Russ D'Argento (Marlboro, Mass.) to move the score to 4-0.

The Huskies added to their lead in the bottom of the fourth, when sophomore Larry Day (Amesbury, Mass.) singled up the middle to score D'Argento, who walked to get on base and then stole second. The sixth UConn run was then scored by Day when he was brought home on a single by Mallozzi.

Hourigan moved the lead to 7-0 in the next inning when he hit a solo homerun over the left-center wall, his second of the season.

UConn then scored one run in the sixth, when Maler singled in Mallozzi from second base, and added a lone run in the eighth when freshman Pat Mahoney (Des Moines, Iowa) scored on a wild pitch to give the Huskies the 9-0 win.

Mallozzi registered a run and RBI while going 3-for-4 at the plate, and Hourigan went 2-for-2 with two runs and three RBI. Wasserman also notched two hits in the game while scoring a run.

Connecticut will next travel to Jamaica, N.Y., to open its BIG EAST season. The Huskies take on St. John's in a doubleheader on Thursday, March 24 with the first game beginning at 12:00 p.m.