UConn Baseball Weekend Preview: No. 28 Houston

UConn Baseball needed to get at least two of three from Cincinnati last weekend. Leaving a series win on the table against a team in the bottom of the standings would have hurt given how close the AAC regular season title race will be.

Friday’s game saw a controversial ending and it easily could have rolled over into the rest of the weekend and the season, but the Huskies got wins on both Saturday and Sunday and they took the series to help make the standings even more compressed at the top.

There are now five teams tied for first place with three weekends to go.

UConn will play two of the four teams they are tied with over the final three weekends of the season, starting with the No. 28 Houston Cougars (28-16, 9-6) on the road in Texas.

The Huskies didn’t have any midweek action due to final exams, while the Cougars took a drive up to Sam Houston State on Tuesday and took a loss as part of 1-4 stretch.

The return of Seth Romero is big for Houston. The left-handed starting pitcher was suspended indefinitely on April 7 for "multiple rules violations." At the time, led the country with 76 strikeouts.

Romero was reinstated on Monday and threw 31 pitches on Tuesday, meaning that he could be in line to start this weekend. As a potential first-round pick, his return is a big deal for the Cougars.

Houston has a strong rotation and its offense has a lot of power without the strikeouts or the drop in average that sometimes comes with it. Jake Scheiner (.362 AVG/.445 OBP/.699 SLG), Connor Wong (.310/.389/.533) and Joe Davis (.293/.357/.457) lead the team in home runs with 13, nine and six, respectively and are three of the top four in batting average.

The Cougars played the USF last weekend with the Bulls coming out on top.

UConn and Houston begin play at Schroeder Park on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Eastern with another 7:30 p.m. start on Saturday. The series finale will begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday.