UConn Baseball Weekend Preview: UC Davis

UConn Baseball notched two wins last weekend in the Westin Lake Mary Stetson Invitational, emerging victorious over Stetson and Saint Joseph’s.

Tim Cate missed his start due to a shoulder injury but the bullpen picked up the slack, allowing just one run, unearned, on five hits in six innings of work even though UConn was unable to defeat Western Michigan.

Wills Montgomerie and Mason Feole also continued their string of strong performances. On Saturday, the team tied a program record with 20 strikeouts on the back of Montgomerie’s 14 punch-outs, his second consecutive start registering a career-high in the category.

Montgomerie leads the nation in strikeouts with 36.

In Sunday’s game against Saint Joseph’s, Feole likely cemented his place in the Sunday role with 5 2/3 shutout innings, as UConn blanked its first team in 2017.

Outfielder Keith Krueger had a strong weekend as he was the only Husky to record a hit in all three games. He went 4-for-13 at the plate, scoring a run in each game and stealing two bases.

For the third consecutive year, the Huskies will head west as part of their Spring Break trip, with the first of two weekend series’ coming against the UC Davis Aggies.

UConn will miss Cate again, but junior third baseman Willy Yahn is expected to return after breaking his hand in the final week before the season began.

The Aggies (4-7) were swept last weekend in short order by No. 4 Oregon State and had midweek games against Oregon and Penn State, splitting the pair with a win against the Nittany Lions.

Jacob Thomas and Ryan Anderson are their biggest offensive threats. Anderson slashes .357 AVG/.400 OBP/.619 SLG, while Thomas’ leads the team in all three categories with .375/.457/.625. Anderson is the leader in home runs, RBI, and total bases.

Robert Garcia (0-1, 4.53 ERA) got the Friday start in each of the first three weekends of the season but has averaged less than six innings of work and allows a lot of contact, with less than five strikeouts in each of his outings.

Orlando Razzo (2-1, 6.35) is slotted for Saturday and is more of an innings eater than Garcia. His only start of less than six innings was when he ran into the Oregon State Beavers, who lit him up for nine earned runs in four innings.

Sunday will belong to Justin Mullins (0-1, 5.40) in only two starts after one game the first weekend of the season was canceled. He had some control problems his last time out, walking five and adding a wild pitch in 5 2/3 innings against Oregon State.

First pitch on Friday is at 5 p.m. Eastern time, with Saturday and Sunday’s games both coming at 4 p.m. Eastern.