UConn Takes Two at Seton Hall

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (May 14) -- The University of Connecticut baseball team rolled to a BIG EAST Conference doubleheader sweep at Seton Hall’s Carroll Field on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Pirates 8-2 and 20-8. The Huskies up their record to 31-19 overall and 10-9 in conference action while Seton Hall dips to 14-32 on the season and 5-16 in league games. UConn’s 20 runs in the twin-bill’s nightcap tied for its largest offensive uprising in a BIG EAST game since a 22-11 win at St. John’s on April 14, 1999.

The opening game saw the Huskies produce a steady attack, scoring runs in five of the game’s seven innings, while Rich Sirois went the distance on the mound for UConn for his sixth win of the season. Josh Farkes got the Huskies on the board with a solo home run in the second inning. UConn plated another pair of runs in the third on a sacrifice fly by Russ D’Argento and an ground RBI single by Jeff Hourigan. D’Argento’s RBI single in the fourth gave the Huskies a 4-0 edge, one the team would stretch to six runs in the fifth on run-scoring singles by Larry Day and Pat Mahoney. UConn scored its final two runs in the top of the sixth on a D’Argento sacrifice fly and a Day single. The Pirates pushed across a pair of runs in the home half of the seventh but that was all they could muster against Sirois. The sophomore allowed six hits and those two runs while fanning three and walking none.

Game two saw the Huskies wrap out 24 hits to accompany their 20 runs as each of UConn’s nine starters had multiple hit games against four Seton Hall pitchers. Hourigan had a grand slam to highlight a seven-RBI performance at the plate. Steven Malinkowski had a 4-for-6 game at the plate with three runs scored and a pair of RBI while leadoff hitter Evan Wasserman scored four times in the contest.

A run-scoring fielder’s choice in the first inning off of Hourigan’s bat got the ball rolling in fairly innocuous fashion for UConn. The Huskies soon broke the game wide open though with four runs in the second, three in the third and then eight in the fourth to go on top 16-1 at that juncture. A three-run blast by D’Argento provided most of the runs in UConn’s second inning rally. A solo shot by Malinkowski and RBI fielder’s choice by Tony Mallozzi were run producers in the third, along with a wild pitch that plated Wasserman from third base. Hourigan’s grand slam was an exclamation mark on the fourth inning after UConn had already seen four runners cross the plate in the frame. UConn added another pair of runs in both the fifth and seventh innings. A Wasserman single to left and a Hourigan sacrifice fly to center were the run-makers in the fifth. An RBI double by Hourigan and RBI single by Farkes accounted for UConn’s seventh inning tallies.

Tim Norton started the second game of the day for UConn and threw six strong innings, allowing three runs, two earned on six hits with four strikeouts and one walk. Norton is now 3-0 on the season. Joe Smeraglino took the pitching duties from there, earning a three-inning save after allowing five runs on 10 hits with three strikeouts and no walks. Following a wild afternoon on Tuesday at Rhode Island, UConn pitchers have now combined to strikeout 19 against only one walk over the past three games combined, a total of 25 innings of action.

The Huskies and Pirates will conclude their three-game set on Sunday at noon in South Orange. For the moment, the wins pull UConn even with Pittsburgh for fourth place in a jumbled conference standings. The Panthers were rained out on Saturday at Notre Dame. The top four teams qualify for the BIG EAST Baseball Championship, May 26-28, in Bridgewater, N.J.