UConn baseball ready to continue chase to Omaha
What’s next for CT Ice; New Haven kid hurts Huskies; all in the Sunday Read
The last out was made, UConn’s long-held aspirations of playing in the College World Series were held in abeyance at the Sunken Diamond. The Huskies then lined up on the top step of their dugout to watch Stanford celebrate last June 14.
“We all stood on the top step in Palo Alto and forced ourselves,” coach Jim Penders said. “It’s like taking the castor oil. We forced it down and watched them celebrate, so when you think about skipping a [workout] or going on vacation instead of getting your swings in or your bullpen throwing in, think twice.”
As Penders spoke from his office in the Rizza Center Friday morning, the pings of balls hitting metal bats and the smack of fastballs hitting mitts was audible in the background, the harbinger that says that even in the dead of winter, baseball is coming.
The Huskies, after their
50-win season, had won the
Big East, the NCAA regional at Maryland and took 1-0 lead in the best-of-three Super Regional at Stanford. They lost the next two, falling a win short of the College World Series, the Omaha national championship tournament last reached by UConn in 1979, when the field and the road was much less foreboding than it is today.
The new season is less than three weeks away, and while UConn has a lot of players returning, they also have the influx of newcomers with various levels of experience. Penders, starting his 20th season, has developed an approach for team building to fit the transfer portal era.
“It’s more important for them to experience pressure almost immediately,” Penders said. “We intentionally prepare them, the second day of school in August, every pitcher should be prepared to throw for a radar gun before the coaches. We don’t ease into it. Our first team-wide practice is a pro showcase where we have the scouts come in, because I want them used to simulating the pressure of a game. We may set a couple of kids back with that philosophy, but I’d rather realize then, than find it out in March or April.”
The new training center, with everything in one place, “really fosters togetherness,” Penders said. “I hear the ping of the bat when I arrive here at 8:30 in the morning, and when I leave I still hear it.”
Shortstop Bryan Padilla, outfielders Korey Morton and T.C. Simmons, second baseman David Smith and first baseman Ben Huber are back from last year’s lineup.
The new transfers include pitchers Andrew Sears and Stephen Quigley, D-III transfers who could join the weekend rotation with returner Ian Cooke.
Dominic Freeberger, grad transfer from UNC Asheville, where he hit .333 and made the
All-Big South team, has Penders excited. “He was a Husky, we just didn’t know it,” Penders said. “He has a real toughness and fit in great.”
Luke Broadhurst from Stafford, transferred from UConn to ESCU, where he hit .392 in 153 games and helped the Warriors win the D-III championship last season, and is now back in Storrs as a grad student. Freeberger and Broadhurst can play multiple positions. Penders also believes freshman Niko Brini, a freshman who entertains with magic tricks — “cape, top hat, the whole bit” — can win an outfield spot and create magic on the bases.
Will Nowak, from South Windsor and, more recently UHart, could help an experienced bullpen. Two more state products, Matt Garbowski from New Fairfield and Ryan Hyde from Berlin, will share the task of replacing Matt Donlan, now in the Red Sox organization, behind the plate.
The Huskies begin Feb. 17 with four games against Ohio State in Florida. There are trips back to Florida, California and Hawaii, with the first home games, against UHart, on March 7.
“Every year is a brand new team now,” Penders said. “I like what we have returning and I really like our newcomers. The only problem with newcomers is, while they have produced in other uniforms, or else they wouldn’t be here, they still haven’t done it in our uniform.
It’s vitally important they have success early on.”
And more in The Sunday Read:
Desmond Claude shines for Xavier
Desmond Claude, a 6-foot-5 freshman who played a year at Hillhouse High in New Haven and then at Putnam Science, scored six points, with four rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes during Xavier’s win at UConn this week. He scored twice driving the lane against UConn’s big men.
“Des lives in the footprint of the Big East and he certainly respects UConn, as we all do,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said. “He’s improving. Freshmen, a lot of times around this time of
year, because they have practiced and played in all these arenas, the styles of play we face, at some point are no longer freshmen. I look at Des as being that way. He’s more confident. I thought he was one of our best players [vs. UConn].”
Mike Cavanaugh: CT Ice belongs in Hartford
The CT Ice tournament was staged for the third year. A terrific idea, to showcase the state’s college hockey programs, has been hampered by COVID and, this year, confusion. SNY put it on TV and staged it in Bridgeport, where crowds were small the first two years. This year,
SNY stepped out and Quinnipiac stepped up to host it. In literally a game-day decision, SNY picked up Quinnipiac’s feed and televised it, and allowed the name, CT Ice, to be used.
The M&T Bank Arena was filled to 3,625 capacity Friday, at least for the Quinnipiac-Sacred Heart game. But UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh is still a proponent of playing this in the XL Center.
“I think that would be a great venue for our four teams,” Cavanaugh said. “We’re pigeon-holing ourselves, limiting ourselves, playing at UConn, playing here, in 3,000-4,000-seat arenas. We can have 8,000, 9,000 at the XL Center if we build this the right way. We had 5,000 there for Long Island on New Year’s Eve, there’s no reason we can’t get more.”
The atmosphere could be electric in the intimate campus arenas, yes, but Cavanaugh is correct. Hartford is the place for this event.
Sunday short takes
◼ Former UConn bullpen ace Matt Barnes, an All-Star reliever with the Red Sox in 2021, lost his form, but it was still a shock to see him designated for assignment this week, Boston to eat $7.5 million. At 32, he should have life in his arm. Somebody in need of bullpen help will get a bargain.
◼ Did you see Geno Auriemma’s halftime interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe at Tennessee? The
new Geno? It’s a process. He vented his anger at the officiating in the heat of the moment. Rowe handled it like a pro.
◼ The Wolf Pack are averaging just under 4,000 per game at
XL, approaching pre-pandemic levels. They’ve had some bigger crowds lately, including 7,100 on Jan 20, and back-to-back sellouts of the lower bowl for the first time in a decade..
◼ Another state Gatorade player of the year is staying home to play for UConn football, Law-Milford quarterback John Neider committed Friday.
◼ Matthew Wood, UConn’s 17-year-old hockey pheenom, wears No. 71 as an homage to his favorite player, the Penguins Evgeni Malkin.
Last word
The Baseball Hall of Fame voters (I am one) were criticized for years for not electing Scott Rolen; this year, he made it and we hear from the other side. For those who wonder how he went from 10 percent of the vote to 76 percent in six years, it’s like this: Each year, new, younger voters become eligible and replace the old ones. Younger voters value advanced metrics, especially defense. Also, the steroids-tainted players stayed on the ballot for 10 years and for many voters, it was a matter of reaching the limit of 10 until the field thinned out a bit in 2023. Finally, there were just no slam-dunks on this year’s ballot, a lot of borderline players.
(To repeat, I voted for Rolen, Todd Helton, Billy Wagner, Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltran, Andy Pettitte, Jeff Kent and Gary Sheffield.)
There is no perfect ballot or ideal process, and there is no large group without a few knuckleheads. But the BBWAA’s body of nearly 400 voters has done this job with integrity for a long time. It’s not like fan voting, as in the old All-Star process, or voting by active players and coaches, as in the old Gold Glove process, or various versions of the Hall of Fame veterans committees, ever produce universally praised results.