The Daily Campus

Issue date: 4/14/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Dan Gindraux John Folino throws a pitch in a March 20 game against West Virginia.

Before departing on a week-long road trip, the baseball team had lost back-to-back disappointing games to Hartford and Boston College. After a 5-2 week on the road, including weekend series wins over Seton Hall and Rutgers, the losses of a week ago are a distant memory.

UConn (17-15) looks to avenge one of those losses against Hartford (6-16) today at 3 p.m. at J.O. Christian Field. Coach Jim Penders hopes that the hot hitting that has characterized their play of late will continue.

"We finally have a little bit of rhythm to our hitting," Penders said. "Our pitching has been solid all year but recently, when it's not been as good, our bats have been able bail us out."

The Huskies were especially potent on offense this weekend against Rutgers - scoring 10 runs on Friday and 15 on Sunday. The increase in run scoring was no more evident than in the production of sophomore second baseman Pierre LePage. LePage finished Sunday's game a perfect 5-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored. LePage had been struggling as of late - and is currently hitting a mediocre .254, far off his .341 pace of a year ago. George Springer continued his stellar freshman campaign by going 3-for-5 with a pair of RBIs on Sunday.

The last time the Huskies took on Hartford, despite getting an early lead, it was the Hawks who came away with a 6-4 win. It was only their fourth win of the year and they have only recorded one since - but according to Penders their record is deceiving.

"Despite what their record says they are a good team," Penders said. "They're going to do everything they can to win the season series with us - and we'll need to everything to get a split. It's going to be a very competitive game."

Perhaps reason for the Huskies to be wary of Hartford, other than that they have already fallen to them once, is the hitting of junior catcher Mike Amendola. Amendola has started all 22 games behind the plate for the Hawks and is hitting a team leading .442. Amendola leads the team in doubles as well, with seven.

There are no surprises at what it takes to earn a split in the season series says Penders.

"There's no hidden formula," Penders said. "We need to keep hitting like we have been and we should be okay. Hopefully the day off hasn't taken away any of our momentum."

According to Penders, the momentum began on a come-from-behind 11-9 victory at UMass last week. As it has been all year it was Springer who hit the decisive blow in the top of the ninth to give the Huskies a lead. It was his second home run of the game and his team leading tenth of the year.

"UMass was a real nice battle," Penders said. "We got down but we kept coming. We had a ninth inning come-back which he hadn't had all year and it got us off on the right foot."

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