University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Wichita State University
BSB Advances to Semis, 9-7, Against Shockers
5/23/2019 9:04:00 PM | Baseball
CLEARWATER, Fla. – The UConn baseball team survived and advanced on Thursday afternoon at Spectrum Field with a 9-7 thriller against Wichita State to advance to Saturday's American Athletic Conference semifinals.
The Huskies (35-22) utilized a ninth inning rally to break a 7-7 tie against the Shockers. Pat Winkel, after homering for the sixth time this season in the second, gave UConn the lead in the ninth with an RBI single past a drawn-in infield. The freshman catcher has collected 12 hits (.444 AVG) and 13 RBIs in his last six games.
Jake Wallace locked down his 15th save of the season with a tense ninth-inning that saw the tying run reach first and potential go-ahead run come to the plate. But a great leaping catch by John Toppa at the left field fence and a strikeout ended the Shockers rally and put the Huskies in the driver's seat going into a 10 a.m. Saturday semifinal.
Chris Winkel recorded a multi-hit effort including a two-run single in the fifth inning to give UConn a 7-4 lead at the time.
Toppa had a key two-out knock in the fourth with the Huskies trailing 4-2. The senior captain grounded a single down the right field line that plated three runs to flip the score line in favor of the Huskies.
The Huskies scored six of their nine runs with two outs and racked up 11 hits on Thursday.
Mason Feole gutted out five innings for UConn and left the game with a lead, 7-5, after allowing five hits, four earned and struck out three. The lefthander moved into a tie with former teammate Tim Cate for the most strikeouts in a UConn career with 270.
Caleb Wurster earned the victory with a quick 1-2-3 inning in the 8th after CJ Dandeneau grinded out 2.0 innings of work with some bad defense being played behind him. The redshirt senior helped himself in the sixth by starting a crazy 1-5-3-8 double play on a safety squeeze bunt pushed back to the mound. The Huskies got a the base runner at third in a rundown for the first out and then bad base running led to the final out of the inning at second base with centerfielder Michael Chiovitti there to apply the tag.
The Huskies wait to see who they will match up with on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. It will either be No. 1 seeded ECU or No. 8 seeded Wichita State.
Notes
- UConn reaches the 35-win mark for the fourth time in the past five seasons.
- Huskies are 12-3 in minor league ballparks this season and 10-2 in neutral site contests.
- The Huskies have won five of their last six games and have scored six runs or more runs in four of those contests.
- UConn has won four-straight games in which Mason Feole starts.
- The Huskies move to 4-0 when tied entering the ninth inning.
- UConn is 16-0 when they score eight or more runs this season.
- The Huskies have reached the semifinal round of the conference tournament for five-straight season and 10 of the last 11 years (2014 did not have semifinal round).
