The Daily Campus

Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Jim Anderson Matt McDonald's solid performance earned him his third win.

UConn and Brown combined for seven errors. Each team had 11 hits. After two hours and 55 minutes, Wednesday's game at J.O. Christian Field was finally over and the Huskies could lay claim to a 10-6 victory. But after UConn closer David Erickson induced a game-ending fielder's choice at second, UConn coach Jim Penders summed up a sloppy, mistake-riddled contest for both clubs by saying, "it was not an oil painting."

The Huskies (19-15) scored five runs in the first two innings and eventually chased Bears' starter Conor Burke in the fourth with a 7-1 lead. UConn designated hitter Harold Brantley connected on a second inning triple to plate a pair of runs en route to a 3-for-4 showing on the day. Brantley finished a home run shy of hitting for the cycle.

UConn starter Matt McDonald turned in another steady outing, allowing just one earned run to notch the win and improve to 3-0 in 2009. The Huskies are now 4-1 when McDonald starts with the only loss coming on a blown save by Erickson. McDonald, a senior from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, has thrived as the team's go-to midweek arm against non-conference opponents - a role that he takes pride in.

"Midweek games are just as important as conference games," said McDonald. "So all I do is try and get the game like into the sixth or seventh inning at least, get a good quality start for us, give our bullpen a chance to hold onto the lead. It's just what I gotta do."

Penders stressed what a valuable member of the Huskies' pitching staff McDonald is, without ruling out the possibility that a weekend start against a Big East opponent could be in his future.

"He's got good stuff," Penders said. "He throws in the low 90s. He's a professional prospect. We haven't pitched him on the weekend but that doesn't mean that he's not gonna pitch on the weekends. We wanna win as many as we can. He's been a nice solid contributor, real consistent for us."

When McDonald exited to start the seventh, lefty Dennis Accomando came in and served up a two-run shot to Brown second baseman Matt Nuzzo to bring the Bears (15-16-1) to within three at 7-4. UConn tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning as rightfielder Matt Burnett roped a two-run single. Burnett finished with four RBI and continues to be a consistent force hitting out of the No. 3 spot in the order for the Huskies.

While UConn still has yet to put together what Penders would call their best game, he is pleased with the way his team is coming through in situations that weren't always kind to them earlier in the year.

"What I've been happy about is when we've gotten free bases like we did today - they gave us a couple free bases, hit by pitches, base on balls, wild pitches - we've been able to make those things hurt," Penders said. "At the beginning of the season, it seemed as though it was the opposite, the shoe was on the other foot. Everything that we did wrong, we were allowing other teams to make us pay for it."

The Huskies are in action at J.O. Christian Field again this weekend with Big East opponent Georgetown visiting for a three-game set beginning.w

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