Preview: UConn baseball vs. UC San Diego | 6 p.m., ESPN+

After breezing through the opening 13 games of the year, UConn baseball hit a bump in the road in its most recent contest against Long Beach State. Whereas the first two losses of the year were by a combined five runs, the Huskies lost 9-1 to Long Beach State on Wednesday night, though to be fair it was their second midweek game in a row and fifth game in six nights.

It was an off day for Jim Penders’ squad, as the pitching staff recorded a season-high in walks and a season-low with two hits. After getting an extra day to rest, UConn will take on UC San Diego in the last swing of its spring break west coast road trip.

Facing the Tritons will be no day at the beach. UCSD transitioned to Division I in 2020 after a successful run in Division II, with 5 College World Series appearances since 2010 and a national runner-up in 2017.

The Tritons went a respectable 24-28 in their first full season in Division I, and are 6-10 overall so far this year. Facing heavy turnover from the 2021 season, UCSD has received offensive production from catcher Blake Fitzgerald (.389) and outfielder Marc Filia (.323).

When: Saturday: 9 p.m. EST

Sunday: 5 p.m.

Monday: 4 p.m.

Where: Triton Ballpark, La Jolla, California

TV: ESPN+

Radio: MIXLR

Projected Starters:

RHP Austin Peterson (2-0, 1.82 ERA) vs. RHP Zach Tonnerre (0-0, 4.82 ERA)

RHP Pat Gallagher (3-1, 1.64 ERA) vs. RHP Noah Conlon (1-3, 6.89 ERA)

RHP Enzo Stefanoni (2-1, 1.48 ERA) vs. RHP Ryan Forcucci (4-3, 3.45 ERA)

Standout performers for UConn:

• Erik Stock leads the Huskies in average (.417), on-base (.485), and hits (25).
• Bryan Padilla, who’s worked his way into the starting lineup fairly regularly at shortstop and is batting .323 on the year.
• Freshman reliever Ian Cooke still has yet to record an earned run through 17.1 innings of work. He’s coming off an impressive 7.2 inning shutout performance against USC, where he struck out 7 and allowed just one walk.