Baseball Uses a Three-Game Sweep Over Pittsburgh To End The 2008 Season

Connecticut vs Pittsburgh (May 17, 2008) - Game 1
Connecticut vs Pittsburgh (May 17, 2008) - Game 2

PITTSBURGH, Pa. (May 17, 2008) — The University of Connecticut baseball team defeated Pittsburgh 6-5 then 7-5 (both seven inning games) in its BIG EAST Conference doubleheader on Saturday afternoon to sweep the conference series at Trees Field.

The Huskies finish their season with an overall record of 27-28 while moving to 11-16 in the BIG EAST. Despite a stellar ending to the regular season, Villanova defeated St. John's on Saturday afternoon to pull ahead of the Huskies in the conference standings to eliminate the Huskies from a chance of postseason play.

In game one of today's doubleheader, UConn used a five run fifth inning to come from behind and take a 6-5 victory. Pittsburgh took an early 4-0 lead as UConn starter Dusty Odenbach (Rochester, N.Y.) gave up seven hits and three earned runs in 4.2 innings pitched.  He also struck out five.

In the fifth inning, the Huskies used four hits to get on the board, capped off by a grand slam by freshman Mike Olt (Branford, Conn.). Senior Gordon Stevens (Vista, Calif.) finished the game with a 2-for-2 performance with one run scored.

The Huskies added one more run in the sixth inning as senior Brad Olt (Branford, Conn.), older brother of Mike Olt, recorded a lead-off solo homerun over the left field wall. Junior David Erickson (Stratford, Conn.) earned the win as he pitched 2.1 innings, allowing one hit and one run scored.

The second game of the doubleheader was called in the middle of the eighth inning due to inclement weather and poor field conditions. Due to the cancellation in the middle of the inning, the game was counted through the seventh, as the Huskies took the victory with a 7-5 score.

Freshman Elliot Glynn (Los Alamitos, Calif.) finished game two with three hits in three at-bats with one run scored and two RBIs. The Huskies had a 4-3 lead going into the seventh inning and connected on three hits for three runs in the seventh to take a larger lead at 7-3. Mike Olt recorded a two-run homerun over the right field wall to aid in the Huskies scoring.

But Pittsburgh rallied back with two runs in the bottom of the inning, but fell short as Dennis Accomando got Dan Williams to line out to second base to end the inning with runners on first and second. With the rain, the game was called in the eighth, reverting back to the end of the seventh inning. Doug Jennings earned the win for the Huskies in the last regular season game of the season.

Mike Olt finished game two with two hits, two runs scored and three RBIs.

-UCONN-