UConn Baseball Falls in Game 3 Against East Carolina

In similar fashion to Friday's game, the Huskies had a great performance from their staring pitcher, but a ninth inning comeback fell one run short. With the 3-2 loss the Huskies have now dropped four in a row.

Wills Montgomerie threw six innings of shut out ball. Despite the zeroes on the scoreboard, the Pirate offense did have its chances. Montgomerie allowed base runners in five of the six innings, allowing five hits, walking two and hitting two more. He registered five strikeouts to bring his total to 64 on the season.

Montgomerie allowed a lot of runners to reach base, but only one made it to third.

"He was great," head coach Jim Penders said. "He executed pitches all day, I was really proud of the way that he calmed himself down a couple of times."

CJ Dandeneau came in to relieve Montgomerie and pitched a perfect seventh, which featured a spectacular play from third baseman Willy Yahn.

After a rain delay at the end of the seventh, Dandeneau was only able to get one out and allowed two singles before giving way to Pat Ruotolo. East Carolina's Dwanya Williams-Sutton took a 1-1 pitch to left-center field over the fence for a three-run home run. After seven full, the Pirates had a 3-0 lead.

Ruotolo got the final five outs without incident.

The Huskies' offense only had one hit heading into the ninth, which they started down by three. Yahn led off with a single and DeRoche-Duffin followed by doing the same. With Daniello at the plate, for the second consecutive game, controversy struck once again.

Daniello grounded to the shortstop, who bobbled the ball before tossing to second. It appeared as though the umpire, the same who took his time ringing up Sundberg yesterday, called him safe at second. The umpiring crew then came together and called DeRoche-Duffin out. Penders was given the explanation that time was called and no safe or out call was given.

"I don't understand how you don't make a call. You're either safe or out," Penders said.

Instead of runners on first and second with no one out and one run in, there was a runner on first and one out. Tyler Gnesda singled to score Daniello and bring the score within one. The tying run was on first with two down for freshman catcher Zac Susi. He worked the count full but grounded out to end the game.

UConn is now 24-22 overall, 8-9 in American Conference play. The Huskies return to action on Tuesday, playing host to UMass on Tuesday at J.O. Christian Field. First pitch is at 3 p.m.