UConn Baseball Falls to Northeastern

The UConn Huskies dropped another midweek contest on Monday as Northeastern got the best of them, 5-3, at J.O. Christian Field.

Catcher Zac Susi had two hits but that was the only bright spot as the home team recorded only four hits on the day.

UConn worked six walks and struck out four times, but they were attacking pitches early in the count and popping the ball into the wind, as opposed to getting deep into at-bats to drive up the pitch count.

“We’ve played here enough to know that if the wind is howling in and we take big swings, you’re going to score three runs, maybe, if you get help,” head coach Jim Penders said.

UConn grabbed an early run after a Susi single in the bottom of the first but gave the lead right over to the visitors in the second.

Nick Fannerton led off with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly. Max Burt moved up to second on the sacrifice and scored from second on an infield hit from Cam Walsh.

Walsh hit it into no man’s land between UConn starter Ronnie Rossomando and first baseman Chris Winkel. No one was paying attention to Walsh, who scored without a throw.

“We were late covering the bag and not expecting the runner to go home from second base on a cover play,” Penders said.

Rossomando retired Northeastern in order in the third inning but the visitors got multiple runners on in the fourth and then was lifted in the fifth after doing it again. He allowed two runs on five hits in 4 1/3 innings of work.

UConn tied up the contest on a safety squeeze from shortstop Anthony Prato in the fifth, but Northeastern took a stranglehold on the game in the seventh after rattling off five straight hits.

They scored three runs to go up 5-2. UConn got one back in the eighth when Prato scored on a balk, but the Huskies failed to take advantage of a bases loaded, no-out situation in the ninth.

“They were going to have to walk or balk someone in because we weren’t going to get it done,” Penders said.

Next up for UConn (28-22) is Rhode Island, Tuesday at 3 p.m. at J.O. Christian Field.