Spring Break
Mistakes lead to disastrous sweep at hands of St. John's
Chris Brodeur
Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: Sports
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Things could not have turned out worse for the Huskies (22-20, 8-10) as the Red Storm (24-14, 12-6) eked out a pair of close wins on Friday and Saturday before exploding for eight runs off sophomore southpaw Greg Nappo in Sunday's finale to wrap up a crushing series for UConn coach Jim Penders' club with a 13-4 victory.
After dropping Friday's opener - a game in which mistakes cost his team in every facet of the game - Penders was right to the point about what went wrong and what needed to change in order to salvage the series.
"We didn't play very well defensively, obviously with seven errors in the ballgame," said Penders. "The difference is they made our errors hurt and we didn't make any of their errors hurt."
Right-hander John Folino took the loss in game one after surrendering six runs - all earned - on 11 hits. The senior from Quincy, Mass., entered the contest as the Huskies' ace, placing among the conference leaders in wins, with five, strikeouts with 50 in 52.2 innings pitched, and an ERA of 3.08.
It was clear from the onset of Friday's game that Folino was not working with his best stuff, and Penders pegged St. John's ability to put together good at-bats against him - coupled with the Huskies' lack of timely hitting - as another major factor in the 8-5 loss.
"It was a game where we had to go to hitting, 'cause they got to Johnny a little bit, [he] left a couple pitches up and they hurt him," Penders said. "They kept coming, they got up on us and they were able to start some runners and hit and run and when they got up on us, I didn't feel like we had our best at-bats. We had great at-bats in the first through the fifth or so, but a lot of donuts after that."
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