The Daily Campus

Issue date: 4/24/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Megan Reynolds Micah Truax led Huskies to the split against Seton Hall with her sixth and seventh home runs of the season on Saturday.

After 40 games, it appears that the offensive struggles of the UConn softball team (18-22, 5-9 Big East) are a thing of the past. Unfortunately, offense alone will not carry the Huskies into the Big East tournament.

Take, for example, Saturday's cold, rain-soaked doubleheader against Seton Hall. The Huskies scored 15 runs in two games against the Pirates, but could only manage a split.

"We hit the ball well enough to win games," said head coach Karen Mullins. "If we didn't give stuff away defensively, we would have been alright."

In the first game, a 9-7 UConn victory, the Huskies showed a flair for the dramatic, needing a bizarre two-out rally to tie the game in the seventh. Micah Truax then sent her teammates into jubilation with a two-run walk-off home run in the eighth.

In the second game, Seton Hall (28-22, 6-10 Big East) capitalized on incredibly sloppy UConn defense. The Huskies committed eight errors, allowing a mind-boggling nine unearned runs en route to an 11-6 victory.

"We were just way too sloppy in the second game," Mullins said. "It was a matter of us breaking down. Both teams had to play in the same conditions."

Seton Hall starter Kim Schweitzer shut the Huskies down early on, allowing three hits over the first four innings, and keeping the Pirates on the winning end of a 1-0 score. The fifth inning would be a different story.

Meghan Tierney reached on an infield bunt single, a feat she would achieve three times in this game.

"That's what she does," Mullins said. "She's got great speed and we moved her to the left side of the plate to capitalize on that."

After Truax singled, third baseman Jillian Ortega emphatically put the Huskies on the board with a three-run homer over the centerfield wall. Three consecutive two-out doubles by Danielle Del Ponte, Erica Pernell and Kim Castner, along with a single by Sarah Neuschwander, added three more runs to the onslaught.

Despite the 6-1 lead, UConn's pitching seemed to unravel in the top of the sixth. Starter Krista Michalczyk loaded the bases with no outs and walked in a run before she was lifted in favor of Rachael Crossin.

Continued...

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