UConn baseball goes 2-0 in midweek games, scores 28 against UMass

Ahead of its weekend conference series against Villanova, UConn baseball passed an important milestone over their two midweek games: The Huskies defeated UMass at home on Tuesday and Boston College on the road on Wednesday to reach 30 wins on the season, their seventh straight full season hitting that benchmark.

Here’s how it went down:

Tuesday: UConn 28, UMass 11

The final score of UConn baseball’s midweek matchup with UMass wouldn’t look out of place at the end of a football game between the two schools, as the Huskies defeated their opponents 28-11 on Tuesday afternoon.

It’s becoming a theme for UConn baseball, whose 8.1 runs per game ranks No. 24 in the nation and first in the Big East.

The Huskies rallied twice from five-plus runs down in both the first and third innings, then scored 14 from the fourth inning onward to complete the comeback win.

UConn was down 5-0 in the first inning after starter Braden Quinn just didn’t quite have it, but stormed right back to tie it with an RBI single from left fielder Erik Stock and a three-run home run from first baseman Ben Huber, in addition to an error on a Bryan Padilla single, which brought home the Huskies’ first run.

After giving up six more in the top of the third, the UConn offense went onto overdrive, batting around and then some, scoring nine runs on six hits, capped off with yet another bomb from Ben Huber.

After seeing what UMass did in the early innings, the Huskies weren’t satisfied with a slim 14-11 lead and batted around yet again in the fourth inning, scoring six runs on five hits, including a bases-clearing triple from freshman shortstop Bryan Padilla.

In such a one-sided contest, at least after the opening few innings, it’s natural that every UConn player would get in on the action. Each of the 11 batters that had an at-bat recorded a hit, of which eight earned a multi-hit game.

Wednesday: UConn 8, Boston College 0

UConn baseball continued their hot run from the second part of Tuesday’s game against another Massachusetts opponent on Wednesday, getting revenge on Boston College for their 5-3 loss at Elliot Ballpark by returning the favor in Chestnut Hill with an 8-0 win.

Freshman Ian Cooke put together a fantastic start on the mound, giving the potent UConn offense a lot to work with by providing eight scoreless innings, allowing a single hit and striking out seven.

Catcher Matt Donlan and Erik Stock paced the office, each going 2-for-5 and combining for three RBI. Freshman shortstop Bryan Padilla was another major contributor, reaching base three times and coming around to score on all three occasions.

The bottom half of the order got UConn started in the second inning, with back-to-back hits from Matt Donlan and Christian Fedko, putting UConn up 1-0. The Huskies put a little extra distance between them and their next-door rivals in the second inning, starting off with a double from Bryan Padilla, who came around to score on a wild pitch. Donlan tacked on two more with an RBI single to make it 4-0.

The Huskies would add some insurance runs in the later innings, with a Zach Bushling RBI double in the seventh and an Erik Stock RBI single in the eighth. Two other runs came home in the eighth, as well, as the Eagles could not field a pop-up off the bat of Padilla.