Huskies Lead Late, Drop Opener at Southern Miss, 6-5

Friday, February 26

Hattiesburg, MS

5:00 PM

University of Connecticut

1-3

University of Southern Mississippi

3-2

UCONN

Southern Miss

2/26/2021 9:32:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The UConn baseball team (1-3) had everything lined up going into the eighth inning, leading Southern Mississippi 5-4 but were unable to close out the Golden Eagles on Friday night at Pete Taylor Park.

But a pair of walks and hit by pitch with one out was followed by a go-ahead, two-run double to lift the Golden Eagles to a series opening win.

Ben Casparius gutted out seven innings on the mound, striking out seven, allowing four runs on five hits and stranded seven base runners. The Westport, Conn. native maneuvered through a pair of jams, including a two and third, no one out jam in the sixth that the right-hander managed to get through unscathed with a strikeout. shallow fly out and great defensive play by second baseman Christian Fedko.

Both teams traded punches throughout the game with the Huskies taking a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly from Pat Winkel that shortstop Andy Hague was able to tag up and score from second on.

After the Golden Eagles tied the game in the first, UConn reclaimed the lead with a pair of solo homers from the Winkel brothers, Chris and Pat. It was the first time in their UConn careers that they had homered in the same game and it happened to come in the same inning.

Southern Miss took its first lead of the night with a three-run fifth inning that nearly featured a spectacular catch from Chris Winkel as he chased down a fly ball, leapt at the track and banged into the outfield fence. Unfortunately, the ball popped up of his glove allowing a pair of runs to score.

Christian Fedko answered immediately with a solo home run, his first of the year, to even the game at four.

UConn took the lead in the seventh after a David Langer double and Chris Winkel bunt single. Hague delivered a sac fly to right to bring in Langer and make it 5-4 Huskies.

Hague finished his 2021 debut with a pair of hits, an RBI, stolen base and a run scored.

The Huskies look to bounce back tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. ET with Joe Simeone on the mound for the Huskies.