By Kenny Barto
In a game that seemed to have the atmosphere of an NCAA tournament game, the Connecticut Huskies were able to come back from an eight-run deficit on the road to beat the Blue Devils 16-14.
“That’s some entertainment at the ballpark for you,” CCSU Head Coach Charlie Hickey said. “It’s a fun game to play in, they’re a very good baseball team and we came out and put ourselves into a position to win, but it didn’t work out in the end.”
CCSU’s offense came alive early when Jake Matuszak and Dylan Delacruz led off the game with back-to-back singles. Both runners advanced on a Mitch Wells fly-out, and Matuszak scored when Pat Epps hit a deep foul-out to left field. UConn answered in the second inning with a two-run single through the left side.
The Blue Devils kept battling, however, and were able to score three runs in the third. With one out, Wells singled to left field and was quickly driven in by Epps on a double down the left field line. Anthony Turgeon drove in the other two runs in the inning with a single through the right side, but one of the runs was unearned due to a throwing error by the right fielder.
The fourth inning was another good one for CCSU, netting four runs. Josh Ingham reached on an error by the third baseman to lead off the inning. Matuszak drove Ingham in on a triple to left center, followed by a Delacruz line drive home run to left field. Sean Miller-Jones would drive in the final run, but was thrown out at second trying to stretch his single into a double.
UConn answered with a run in the fifth, but CCSU added another three runs in their half. With two runners on, Matuszak would get another RBI on a single to left field. Delacruz followed by hitting a hard line drive to UConn center fielder and New Britain native George Springer. Springer couldn’t handle the ball and it went off of his glove, which scored Andy Lalli. The final run came on a fielder’s choice, with Wells getting the RBI.
UConn began their comeback in the sixth inning, putting up a five spot against the Blue Devils. Springer would impress his hometown crowd by hitting a bomb into the trees in right center field. The Blue Devils tried to keep up in their half of the sixth with three runs led by a two-run double by Lalli. Matuszak got his third RBI of the game when he reached on a fielder’s choice, but that would be it for the CCSU offense.
Springer would show off his potential first-round draft pick skills by hitting another three-run home run in the seventh. After that, UConn would add five more runs to put the final score at 16-14.
“In a game like this, it just proved to us that we didn’t have the pitching to matchup against them,” Hickey said. “But, this was also a mid-week out of conference game, so our focus now shifts to Friday at Quinnipiac.”
The final numbers for the game were staggering. Thirty total runs, 34 hits and seven errors on ten total pitchers, five for each team. CCSU’s starter, Roy Natoli, seemed to pitch with a lot of confidence, but his relievers could not pick him up. Nate Sturgis gave up three earned runs, plus two more that were charged to Natoli. Jason Foster followed by giving up four runs, one of which was earned, followed by Nick Boyd and Ingham giving up three runs and one run respectively.
Even though the score was high, the first few innings were back and forth, which entertained the crowd of over 200 that showed up. Both teams were against the fence the entire game, and both teams wanted the win even though the game essentially meant nothing in the standings.
“Whenever you play a game like that against a program like that, it’s only going to make your team better,” Hickey said. “We got a lot of young guys out there to play against some good competition, so it really helped us a lot.”
The Blue Devil baseball team was CCSU’s only sport to play against a UConn this season, excluding club teams.
They will hit the road Friday through Sunday for a four-game Northeast Conference series against Quinnipiac.