UConn baseball beats Miami (Ohio) in first game of Baseball at the Beach tournament, 5-0

UConn’s main man on the mound Ben Casparius picked up his first win as a Husky on Friday, throttling the Miami (Ohio) lineup and helping the HookC crew open their weekend with a 5-0 victory over the RedHawks.

It was by far Casparius’ best start in a UConn uniform as he finished with a final line of 8.0 innings pitched, zero earned runs, three hits, three walks, and 11 strikeouts.

“Even today I could have been a little bit sharper,” Casparius said after the game, “[But] I kept them off-balance and it just worked for me today.”

Casparius mixed his three pitches well, sitting down batter after batter early on in the game, and was also able to stick in there when it got a little hairy. In the 2nd inning, the right-hander gave up a hit and a walk to the seven and eight hitters in the Miami lineup but sat down the next two with a strikeout and groundout. Then in the 4th, 6th, and 8th, Casparius gave up a pair of baserunners with one out or fewer but was able to escape with no runs allowed in all three frames.

In the meantime, the UConn offense was driving in runs like they did all last weekend. It all started with a big second inning when Christian Fedko laced a leadoff double then advanced to third on a wild pitch before Reggie Crawford brought him home with a sacrifice fly for his team-leading eleventh RBI of the year. Kyler Fedko kept things going with a walk then Ben Maycock sent a single into left field. Two more free passes put Chris Winkel and David Langer on-base which set the table for a Zach Bushling single that plated two more.

UConn would add to their 3-0 lead later in the game thanks to another big hit from Crawford. He smacked a triple in the bottom of the 6th that drove in Christian Fedko after Fedko reached courtesy of a RedHawks error. Patrick Winkel got in on the action in the next inning with a double to deep center field that scored Bushling.

Christian Fedko continued his hot-hitting start to the season by going 2-4 with a single and double, showing once again that he’s quite comfortable playing inside Spring Brooks Stadium. UConn fans should fondly remember his last visit back in 2018 when he hit the go-ahead home run to knock Coastal Carolina out of their own regional.

Pitcher Sam Favieri saw his second appearance in a UConn uniform, closing the game for the Huskies with two strikeouts in the ninth.

UConn will be back in action on Saturday with a 10:30 a.m. game against Davidson before taking on the tournament hosts Sunday at 3 p.m. and Monday at 12 p.m.