No. 10 UConn baseball barely takes care of business against Hofstra

No. 10 UConn baseball was playing with fire on Wednesday evening, staying just one step ahead of Hofstra in a narrow 9-7 victory in its lone midweek matchup.

The Huskies trailed by one run in the bottom of the fourth inning and plated a pair to take a slim 5-4 lead, and they would maintain a slim for the remainder of the contest, staving off a two-run Hofstra comeback in the eighth inning to earn the win.

UConn’s bats lit up to keep the home side on top, with three home runs, three triples and one double produced by the Husky batting order.

UConn responded after Hofstra opened the scoring in the second inning with a solo bomb from Luke Broadhurst, his first of two hits on the day. Hofstra responded with a three-run third inning, chasing starter Jack Sullivan from the game after just 13 batters faced. It was his first start since April 15.

But UConn continued to keep pace with a two-run bottom of the third with a Korey Morton home run followed by a Dominic Freeberger sacrifice fly, and the hosts would soon take the lead with a Maddix Dalena two-RBI double in the bottom of the fourth

The Huskies kept coming back inning after inning, scoring in every frame from the second until the eighth. Morton added to his hit total with an RBI triple in the bottom of the sixth, and T.C. Simmons pulled a home run over the left-field fence to make it 8-5.

Hofstra would get two back in the top of the eighth, but UConn’s career save leader Justin Willis entered the game and was able to retire the final four batters of the game to earn his eighth save of the season.

UConn (36-11) will be back in action on Friday at 6:05 p.m. as it takes on Butler to kick off the final home series of the season. The contest will be broadcast on UConn+.