University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
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University of North Florida
HookC Takes Series Opener, 11-5, at UNF
2/25/2022 11:19:00 PM | Baseball
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The UConn baseball team (3-1) earned a series opening victory, 11-5, against North Florida on Friday night at Dusty Rhodes Field.
The Huskies rebounded from a shaky start to outscore the Ospreys, 11-2, after the second inning.
After a couple defensive miscues, the Huskies put together a two-out rally in the third inning. David Smith drew a two-out walk and shortstop Zach Bushling drilled a two-run shot to the opposite field to trim the deficit to 3-2.
Erik Stock and Ben Huber quickly followed with singles and set the stage for graduate transfer Casey Dana. The right fielder put together an eight-pitch at-bat that resulted in a two-run double down the left field line to give the Huskies their first lead of the night, 4-3.
Starter Austin Peterson would ensure the Huskies would not relinquish the lead. The Chesterton, Ind. native picked up his first win with 6.0 innings of work that featured zero earned runs, zero walks and 10 strikeouts.
David Smith added his first career RBI with a run-scoring single in the fourth to make it 5-3 Huskies.
Left field Kevin Ferrer plated a pair with his two-run double in the fifth to push the lead to 7-4.
Freshman Ian Cooke notched his first career save with 3.0 innings out of the bullpen.
UConn put the game away with a four-run eighth inning that was highlighted by a Chris Brown RBI triple and Stock two-run double.
UConn looks to win its first series of the season with a first pitch of 2:05 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
Game Notes
- UConn pitchers did not allow a walk or hit by pitch on Friday night. March 27, 2019 vs. Boston College was the last time the Huskies did not issue and walks or hit by pitches in a game.
- Austin Peterson has recorded back-to-back double-digit strikeouts games for the first time in his UConn career. His sixth strikeout of the night was the 100th of his career.
- Zach Bushling has now homered in back-to-back games for the Huskies.
- UConn has posted double-digit strikeouts on the mound in all four games this season.
