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Huskies Win One, Lose One vs. West Virginia
Boxscore - Game One
Boxscore - Game Two
STORRS, Conn. (April 3, 2005) - The University of Connecticut baseball
team faced BIG EAST foe West Virginia in a doubleheader on Sunday
afternoon, losing the first game 7-6 before taking game two 9-2. The
split moves the Huskies to 16-7 overall and 2-2 in conference games,
while the Mountaineers are 11-16, 2-4 vs. league opponents.
In the first game, West Virginia jumped out to an early 7-0, scoring
two runs in the second inning and five in the fourth. The fourth
inning included a three-run homer to left center by Stan Posluszny.
In the bottom of the inning, UConn got on the board to cut the lead to
7-2. With one out, senior Tony Mallozzi (Westboro, Mass.)
doubled down to left center, and junior Bryan Maler (Ansonia,
Conn.) followed with a base on balls. Senior Jeff Hourigan
(Beacon Falls, Conn.) then hit a single and advanced to second on an
error by the left fielder. The hit scored Mallozzi while Maler came
home unearned on the error.
The Huskies continued their rally in the bottom of the sixth inning,
putting up four more runs to cut the WVU lead to one. With two outs,
Hourigan and freshman Matt Karl (Wallingford, Conn.) drew walks
to put runners on first and second. Senior Russ D'Argento
(Marlboro, Mass.) then hit a single to left field to load the bases.
Sophomore Larry Day (Amesbury, Mass.) reached on a walk to
shift everyone over a base and bring home Hourigan. Sophomore Matt
Untiet (Berlin, Conn.) then blasted the ball to the center field
wall for the ninth triple by a Husky this season. The three-bagger
cleared the bases and put UConn within one at 7-6. But in their final
at-bats in the bottom of the seventh, the Huskies were unable to get
any offense going and fell just short of the comeback.
Junior John Slusarz (Farmington, Conn.) got the loss for UConn
to move to 3-1 this season. He threw 3.1 innings with seven runs on
seven hits and one strikeout. Freshman David Erickson
(Stratford, Conn.) finished the game, not allowing a run with three
strikeouts and a hit over 3.2 innings. Chris Amedro of West Virginia
picked up his third win of the season while Todd Dunham registered his
fourth save of the season.
In the second game, UConn's offense struck first, scoring five runs
over the opening five innings. In the fourth, junior Steven
Malinowski (Kensington, Conn.) hit his first homerun of the season
as he slammed the ball over the left center wall for a two-run homer
that also scored freshman Pat Mahoney (Des Moines, Iowa).
The Mountaineers then scored two runs in the top of the sixth to cut
the lead to 5-2, but the Huskies responded by scoring two runs in both
the seventh and eighth innings for a final of 9-2. The scoring
included Hourigan's third homerun of the season on a solo shot to lead
off the eighth.
Malinowski led the UConn bats in the second game, going 3-for-5 with
four RBI and a run. Freshman Vin DiFazio (Hampton, N.J.) also
drove in multiple runs with three RBI on a 2-for-4 performance.
D'Argento scored almost half of the Huskies' runs with four while
going 2-for-3.
Sophomore southpaw Rich Sirois (Ipswich, Mass.) was the winning
pitcher in the second game, throwing eight innings with two runs, six
hits, three walks and seven strikeouts to move to 4-2. Fellow
sophomore Ted Garry (Rochester, Minn.) struck out one and
walked one with two hits in the final inning. Wes Osborn (3-2)
registered the loss for the Mountaineers.
For the day, D'Argento was 3-for-5 with five runs while Hourigan
finished 3-for-7 with three runs and two RBI.
Connecticut will complete the three-game series against West Virginia
with a 12:00 p.m. game on Monday, April 4 at J.O. Christian Field. |
