UConn Baseball Tops Memphis in Game 2, 10-7

UConn Baseball clinched another conference series after taking a 10-7 win in a wild one at J.O. Christian Field on Saturday.

“I would rather be in the left-hand column than the right-hand column any day of the week,” head coach Jim Penders said after the game.

Wills Montgomerie had a rocky outing which lasted just two innings. He allowed six runs, five earned, on seven hits while walking three with no strikeouts.

“He proved he was human today,” Penders said. “It just wasn’t there.”

Luckily, the bullpen came through in a big way, giving the Huskies seven hitless innings and only allowing one run.

“[Dandeneau] did a nice job,” Penders said. “Domnarski did a nice job settling in after every leadoff man was getting on... Seven hitless from the bullpen, that’s pretty impressive.”

Shortstop Anthony Prato led the way offensively, going 3-for-6. Right fielder Isaac Feldstein (1-for-5) had three RBI, while designated hitter Zac Susi (2-for-5) and center fielder Keith Krueger each added two.

“Prato started off a lot of those innings, just taking what they gave him,” Penders said.

Memphis scored four in the first but the Huskies responded with five runs in their half of the first. Right fielder Isaac Feldstein cleared the bases with a double to left-center. He came home along with left fielder John Toppa when catcher Alex LeFevre forced a throwing error at third and UConn ended an eventful first inning with the lead.

Memphis regained the lead in the second on two consecutive RBI singles before scoring another in the third on a sacrifice fly for a 7-5 advantage.

The Huskies stranded a lot of runners in the middle stages of the game, leaving two on in the second and three each in the fourth and fifth, but they took the lead back in the fifth.

“We could have had a couple of two-out RBI”, Penders said. “But I’ll take it.”

They sent all nine men to the plate, taking advantage of two errors, both by Schritenthal at third.

Center fielder Keith Krueger brought UConn to within one with a hard single to the left side before designated hitter Zac Susi gave the Huskies the lead back with a double just inside the left-field line to make it 8-7.

UConn added two insurance runs in the eighth before John Russell closed out the top of the ninth for his 10th save of the year.

UConn (18-10, 5-0) and Memphis will finish their series on Sunday at 11 a.m. with Mason Feole on the mound for the Huskies.