Spring Break
HOME SWEET HOME
Baseball Looks To Grab Bulls By The Horns
Matt Flachsenhaar
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Sports
The second Big East series of the year for the Huskies will begin at 3 p.m., Friday at J.O. Christian Field.
The UConn baseball team could not have picked a better time to have found their groove. Winners of six of their last seven, they are rolling strongly right into the meat of the Big East schedule and now boast a .500 record for the first time since the second game of the season. South Florida will be the next team that must contend with the Huskies (10-10, 2-1 Big East).
Of course, taking on the Bulls (20-8) is no easy task. USF recently went to Notre Dame and captured two of three from the Irish, a team predicted to finish second in the Big East. This in an impressive feat, but one UConn head coach Jim Penders believes that team is very capable of.
"We take them very seriously period," he said. "They play with a lot of energy and their new coaching staff is doing great. They always had a lot of talent to begin with."
Bulls second baseman Dexter Butler leads the team in average, hitting .404 on the year. However, he hit .600 in the past week, earning him his first College Baseball Foundation National Honor Roll 'Player of the Week' award.
The Huskies will answer the bat of Butler with the swing of Co-captain Dennis Donovan, who earned his own Big East honor, being named 'Player of the Week' for his efforts in the past few games. He is also just one good line drive away from Butler's mark, as he is the owner of a .402 average on the year.
It hasn't been just Donovan doing the job on the offensive side however; the whole unit has exploded the past few games after getting off to a slow start. Most recently leaving its mark in New Haven on Wednesday when it lit up Yale for 18 runs.
"We've just been playing games and getting more confidence," Penders said. "Our pitching and defense have been solid too. We can't rely on getting 20 hits a game to win."
UConn's pitching has performed well as of late, but a quick glance at USF's staff leaves one to believe they could land a few starters on the Kansas City Royals' starting rotation. All of the Bull's regular starters have maintained ERA's under 4.00, and their number one starter, Daniel Thomas, has set himself apart with a 1.27 ERA in five starts.
The intriguing matchup of the series will probably be between the bats of the Huskies and the arms of the Bulls. Both come in red-hot and something has to give. Pender chooses to look internally instead of trying to alter strategy specifically for USF.
"There's nothing you can do," he said. "We need to worry about us and our approach at the plate. It's very simple and we made it complicated at the beginning of the year."
Now, almost in April, the Huskies will finally be playing their legitimate home opener. Due to inclement weather, a three-game series against St. John's counted as three home games for UConn on the schedule, but hardly provided for any kind of home field advantage. Penders joked about the thought of finally playing at home.
"I've forgotten my wife and kid's names, so it's nice to be home," he said. "It's almost an adjustment though, because we've been on the road so long. But I'd rather have that type of adjustment than anything else."
The UConn baseball team could not have picked a better time to have found their groove. Winners of six of their last seven, they are rolling strongly right into the meat of the Big East schedule and now boast a .500 record for the first time since the second game of the season. South Florida will be the next team that must contend with the Huskies (10-10, 2-1 Big East).
Of course, taking on the Bulls (20-8) is no easy task. USF recently went to Notre Dame and captured two of three from the Irish, a team predicted to finish second in the Big East. This in an impressive feat, but one UConn head coach Jim Penders believes that team is very capable of.
"We take them very seriously period," he said. "They play with a lot of energy and their new coaching staff is doing great. They always had a lot of talent to begin with."
Bulls second baseman Dexter Butler leads the team in average, hitting .404 on the year. However, he hit .600 in the past week, earning him his first College Baseball Foundation National Honor Roll 'Player of the Week' award.
The Huskies will answer the bat of Butler with the swing of Co-captain Dennis Donovan, who earned his own Big East honor, being named 'Player of the Week' for his efforts in the past few games. He is also just one good line drive away from Butler's mark, as he is the owner of a .402 average on the year.
It hasn't been just Donovan doing the job on the offensive side however; the whole unit has exploded the past few games after getting off to a slow start. Most recently leaving its mark in New Haven on Wednesday when it lit up Yale for 18 runs.
"We've just been playing games and getting more confidence," Penders said. "Our pitching and defense have been solid too. We can't rely on getting 20 hits a game to win."
UConn's pitching has performed well as of late, but a quick glance at USF's staff leaves one to believe they could land a few starters on the Kansas City Royals' starting rotation. All of the Bull's regular starters have maintained ERA's under 4.00, and their number one starter, Daniel Thomas, has set himself apart with a 1.27 ERA in five starts.
The intriguing matchup of the series will probably be between the bats of the Huskies and the arms of the Bulls. Both come in red-hot and something has to give. Pender chooses to look internally instead of trying to alter strategy specifically for USF.
"There's nothing you can do," he said. "We need to worry about us and our approach at the plate. It's very simple and we made it complicated at the beginning of the year."
Now, almost in April, the Huskies will finally be playing their legitimate home opener. Due to inclement weather, a three-game series against St. John's counted as three home games for UConn on the schedule, but hardly provided for any kind of home field advantage. Penders joked about the thought of finally playing at home.
"I've forgotten my wife and kid's names, so it's nice to be home," he said. "It's almost an adjustment though, because we've been on the road so long. But I'd rather have that type of adjustment than anything else."
Be the first to comment on this story