University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn Looks To Get Back To Even
4/6/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Pittsburgh enters on a three game win streak that was extended in dramatic fashion Thursday afternoon on a walk-off single in the 10th inning that led to a 6-5 win over Kent State. On the year, the Panthers are 15-12, but with more than half of those losses coming in conference contests, Pitt is at 3-7 in the league. The trio of conference wins came against Georgetown (3/17 and 3/18) and the other being West Virginia (3/31), with neither of those two teams owning a winning BIG EAST record.
Today's doubleheader and Sunday's single game are both set to begin at noon.
Hitting and Pitching Inside the Numbers
Avg. HR SB-SBA SLG% ERA SV BB SO Opp. BA
Pitt .274 30 29-38 .447 5.28 3 117 46 .275
UC .295 12 45-59 .424 6.00 2 104 159 .289
The SeriesWith the first meeting between the two schools coming in 1990, UConn owns the upper hand with a 17-15 record. In last season's three meetings, Pittsburgh exploded in the first game for an 18-5 win and cruised in the second as well, handing UConn a 10-3 loss. In the final contest of the series, the Huskies bounced back to grab an 8-2 decision. The last time Connecticut took two of three from Pittsburgh was 1997 and the last time UConn has swept was in the 1992 three-game set. It was the Pittsburgh game last season that began a run of 15 victories in 16 games for UConn, which secured the Huskies a spot in the BIG EAST conference tournament for the first time since 1994. In that game, Brian Esposito went 3-for-4 and was one of three players to bring in a pair of runners to help Connecticut avoid the sweep. Both UConn and Pitt were knocked out of the conference tournament on the same day, with the Huskies barely dropping a game to Rutgers (8-7) and the Panthers being eliminated by Notre Dame, 15-7, on May 18.
Scouting Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh returns 25 letterwinners from last season's team that finished 31-24 overall and 11-15 in the BIG EAST for a six place finish in making the school's first BIG EAST tournament appearance since 1995.
Joe Engel's 2.12 ERA is the fourth best in the league as he also has the lowest opponent batting average, .164, of any pitcher in the BIG EAST to date. Engel is 3-2 on the season with 34.0 innings of work and has struck out a team-high 35 batters.
Scott Schulz who has a 1.90 ERA, but does not appear on the league ranking list due to a lack of innings pitched (23.2), bolsters a staff with his 2-1 record. As a group, the Panthers rank seventh in the league with a 5.39 ERA.
As far as batting goes, Brant Collamarino paces the team with a .358 batting average that is elevated by his 11 doubles this season, which ranks second in the BIG EAST. Collamarino also has the ninth highest on base percentage with a .450.
With the team ranked ninth out of 11 in batting (.271), one of the major bright spots is its 30 home runs this season. Nearly one-third of that comes from Brad Rea who has eight. That total has him on top of the league standings and just outside the nations top 25 list.
In 2000, Pittsburgh head coach Joe Jordano earned his 50th win at Pittsburgh, a 7-5 triumph over Niagara, and notched his 350th career win later in the season. In his four years at Pittsburgh, Jordano has amassed 85-90-1 record. After guiding the Panthers to a 27-27 mark in his second season, Jordano surpassed the 30-win plateau last year by notching 31 wins, marking only the fourth time in school history that feat has been accomplished.
Great Scott
Centerfielder Mike Scott (Jr., Darien, CT) brings a career-best
19-game hitting streak into today's contests with Pittsburgh. In that span, Scott has gone 40-for77 (.519). Listed below is Scott's achievements this season:
* Leads the BIG EAST with a batting average of .425 and in conference games only with a .553. The overall average is tied for 35th nationally.
* A triple shy of setting the all-time career mark in the BIG EAST, which would be 11. Is ranked third on the UConn single season list (4) and fifth in career triples (6). Is ranked 16th nationally in triples this year.
* Has hit safely in 24 of UConn's 26 games this season including two five hit efforts (shown on the chart to the right).
* Tied with Rutgers Val Majewski for the BIG EAST lead with 44 hits (1.83 pg).
* Leads UConn with 14 multi-hit games, 11 of which have come during the streak.
SCOTT'S 19-GAME HITTING STREAK 3/2 Georgia 2-for-5 3/9 Minnesota 2-for-5 3/10 Minnesota 1-for-4 3/11 Minnesota 1-for-5 3/15 Sacred Heart 5-for-6 3/17 St. John's 2-for-4 3/17 St. John's 2-for-4 3/18 St. John's 1-for-4 3/23 Villanova 2-for-3 3/23 Villanova 1-for-3 3/25 Rutgers 3-for-3 3/25 Rutgers 1-for-4 3/28 UMass 1-for-4 3/29 Northeastern 3-for-4 3/31 V. Tech 3-for-4 3/31 V. Tech 1-for-4 4/1 V. Tech 5-for-5 4/3 RIU 1-for-4 4/4 Fairfield 3-for 6Last Time Out For the second time in as many games, the University of Connecticut baseball team used a double in the ninth in order to slip past an opponent, this time with Mike Scott (Darien, CT) providing the heroics as he brought in Mike Athas (Fr., Holyoke, MA), who represented the go-ahead run as UConn defeated Fairfield, 10-9, Wednesday afternoon.
It was Scott who got the scoring started with a lead-off homer in the first inning, marking his first of the season and the tenth of his career. Later in the inning, Cy Hess (Jr., Oakdale, CT) would put UConn up two as he came across on a Jon Gorrie (Jr., Northboro, MA) sac fly to center.
Fairfield responded with a pair of its own in the first, before jumping out to a 6-2 advantage one inning later. Antaun Barnett, who led the Stags with a 3-for-4 day to go along with his three RBI, capped the scoring when Jon Novalis doubled.
UConn would chip away at the lead in the third coming up with two runs when Gorrie singled to plate Scott before eventually making it home on a Joe Kagerer (Sr., Lebanon, CT) sac fly to right.
The Huskies added one in the fifth and Fairfield matched it with one of its own, before Connecticut grabbed the lead with a three-run sixth inning. In the frame, Scott hit his 11th double of the season to plate Mike Leonard (Fr. Vernon, CT), who also had three hits, 3-for-4, along with Peter Soteropoulos (So., Peabody, MA) who went 3-for-5. Hess grounded out to short, allowing Dan Trubia (So., Tolland, CT) to tie it up before Soteropoulos (So., Peabody, MA) drove in Scott to put UConn on top.
Fairfield added two in the seventh to retake the lead, before the Huskies started a rally in the ninth that began with a Ryan Treat (Sr., Uncasville, CT) solo shot.
Mike James (Fr., Roswell, GA) earned the win to move to 3-0 on the year as he came on in the seventh to work two and two thirds innings. James gave up two hits and allowed two runs (both earned), while also walking and striking out a pair. Dan Krines was credited with his fifth loss this season (0-5) as he worked three frames, giving up six hits and two earned runs.
About UConn Head Coach Andy Baylock Now in his 22nd season, UConn head coach Andy Baylock is just 10 wins shy of 500 career victories. To date his career record stands at 490-436-8 (.525) and he has won more games at UConn than any other coach in school history. Prior to taking on the lead role, Baylock spent 15 years as the top assistant to then-head coach Larry Panciera. Combining the two, he has been part of an overall record of 749-558-11 during the past 36 seasons. Overall, he has coached in 1,325 of the 2,205 games (.600) that have ever been played involving the University of Connecticut.
TOUCH EM' ALL The graph below reflects when and where UConn's home runs this season are coming from: No. Player G# Inn. Key 1 Hess 4 3 - 2 Hess 6 9 LO 3 Hess 11 3 - 4 Hess 15 9 LO 5 Treat 17 5 - 6 Kagerer 19 4 B2B 7 Kagerer 19 6 B2B 8 Gorrie 20 1 GA 9 Tisbert 23 4 B2B 10 Tisbert 23 6 BRB 11 Scott 26 1 LO 12 Treat 26 9 TieKey: LO=Led off the inning GA=Go Ahead B2B=Back to Back Tie=Tied the game
UCONN'S STATISTICAL LEADERS (as of April 7)
Batting Avg. AB R H HR RBI BB SO Scott, Mike .425 113 25 48 1 18 7 12 Gorrie, Jon .376 93 18 35 1 17 9 17 Mocerino, Mike .325 40 4 13 0 6 0 10
Pitching ERA W-L SV CG IP SO BB James, Mike 3.06 3-0 0 0 17.2 17 13 Sperone, Patrick 3.07 4-1 0 3 41.0 18 12 DeBrisco, Chris 4.60 1-2 2 1 31.1 13 10 Fulchino, Jeff 6.64 2-5 0 1 39.1 28 21
WHERE UCONN RANKS IN THE BIG EAST
2001 BIG EAST Team Standings (as of 4/1) BIG EAST OVERALL TEAM W L T Pct. W L T Pct. Rutgers 8 2 0 .800 21 7 0 .750 Notre Dame (7) 5 2 0 .714 21 4 1 .827 Virginia Tech 7 3 0 .700 14 13 0 .519 Connecticut 6 4 0 .600 12 14 0 .462 St. John's 6 4 0 .600 12 11 0 .522 Seton Hall 5 5 0 .500 12 13 0 .480 West Virginia 5 5 0 .500 12 15 0 .444 Pittsburgh 3 7 0 .300 12 12 0 .500 Villanova 3 7 0 .300 10 13 1 .438 Georgetown 3 7 0 .300 8 20 0 .286 Boston College 1 6 0 .143 11 11 0 .500 (Parantheses)= Baseball America Ranking
2001 BIG EAST Team Leaders (as of 4/2) Batting Avg. AB R H HR RBI BB SO Fifth .289 812 132 235 10 115 76 153
Pitching ERA W-L SV CG IP SO BB Eleventh 6.00 10-14 3 7 198 131 97
Fielding PO A E Pct. DP SBA-ATT Fourth 594 226 28 .967 13 42-54
2001 BIG EAST Individual Leaders (as of 3/26) Individual Batting Avg. 1st-Mike Scott .427
Hits G H H/G 2nd-Mike Scott 24 44 1.83
Home Runs G HR HR/G T3rd-Cy Hess 24 4 .17
Walks G BB BB/G 3rd-Cy Hess 24 18 .75
Triples G 3B 3B/G 1st-Mike Scott 24 4 .17
Stolen Bases G SB SB/G T5th-Cy Hess 24 9 .38 T5th-Brian Tisbert 24 9 .38
Wins G W-L 4th-Patrick Sperone 6 4-1
