Spring Break
Climbing The Mountain
Baseball: Huskies Try To Get Back On Track To NCAAs Against Mountaineers
Mike Northup
Issue date: 4/25/08 Section: Sports
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With just nine games left this season against Big East opponents, 13 overall, to determine the fate of the 2008 season the Huskies plunge into their final stretch with a three-game series against West Virginia tonight at 7 :05 p.m. at Hawley Field in Morgantown.
The Huskies (21-22, 7-11 Big East) haven't won a Big East series since taking two-of-three from Villanova at the end of March and Penders feels it's time for the team to buck that trend.
"We're going to have to go out there and do our darnedest to win a series in the first time in about four weeks," Penders said. "We gotta win a series - bottom line."
Because the Big East has traditionally had fewer at-large bids than other collegiate baseball conferences such as the SEC, ACC and Pac-10, every Big East game for the Huskies and their opponents count that much more towards the ultimate goal of playing in the NCAA Tournament, according to Penders.
"We have to focus a little bit more on the conference right now," Penders said. "That's how we get to the postseason right now. We're not going to be an NCAA at-large team. We've got to win the Big East conference to have a chance at playing beyond that."
Currently, UConn stands in ninth place in the Big East, meaning if the season ended today, they would not make it into the eight-team conference tournament. The Huskies, however, are just a half game back of eighth-place Rutgers and one game back of seventh-place South Florida.
Penders hopes for a similar result to last season against West Virginia, when the Huskies used a series win against the Mountaineers (29-11, 8-7) as a catalyst for an 8-3 regular season-ending run after taking two-of-three from the Mountaineers at J.O. Christian Field.
That run propelled UConn into the Big East tournament as a No. 8 seed and the team carried the momentum all the way to the championship game, falling one run short of beating Rutgers and a chance to play in the NCAA tournament.
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