University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Cal Poly
HookC Heads to Berkeley To Face Cal & Cal Poly
2/24/2023 12:37:00 AM | Baseball
Game Notes | MIXLR | Cal Live Stream-2
BERKELEY, Calif. - The UConn baseball team (2-2) heads to Berkeley, Calif. to face Cal Poly and the University of California at Evans Diamond at Stu Gordon Stadium. The Huskies face off against Cal Poly on Friday, February 24 at 10 p.m. ET and squares off against the Cal Bears on Saturday, February 25 at 5 p.m. ET and Sunday, February, 26 at 4 p.m. ET.
The Huskies are scheduled to throw RHP Ian Cooke, RHP Jack Sullivan and LHP Andrew Sears in the weekend rotation.Â
UConn is coming off a four-game series split with Ohio State on Opening Weekend in Florida. RHP Jack Sullivan made his first career start and earned the victory in game two of the series with 5.1 innings of two-run ball. The top of the order came through with David Smith, Korey Morton and Dominic Freeberger drove in all nine runs and scored seven of them.
In game three of the series, the Huskies trailed 5-4 entering the seventh inning. The Huskies responded with a three-run seventh inning that included a two-out, two-run single from Bryan Padilla to take the lead for good.Â
LHP Andrew Sears, OF Jake Studley, 3B Dominic Freeberger, 1B/DH Maddix Dalena, RHP Will Nowak, RHP Jude Abbadessa and INF Ryan Daniels all made an impact in their first weekend with UConn.
Studley went 5-13 (.385 AVG) with four runs scores, one triple and a stolen base while Freeberger drove in six runs on the weekend with a double, a home run and drew three walks.
Dalena stole the show on Sunday by hitting a two-run home run in his first collegiate at bat while Daniels came off the bench on Monday and collected his first career hit.Â
The Huskies and Mustangs have only met once before in the 2020 MLB4 Tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Huskies were held to two hits in the Opening Day contest with Taylor Dollard pitching seven superb innings with zero walks and 10 strikeouts.Â
UConn is 1-1 all-time against California with the last matchup coming in 2011. It will be the first meeting in Berkeley, Calif. with the 2011 game being played in San Diego and the 1998 contest held in Minneapolis, Minn. Matt Barnes earned the victory in 2022 with 7.1 stellar innings on the bump. That game featured seven future MLB players with Tony Renda, Marcus Semien and Andrew Knapp on Cal and George Springer, Barnes, John Andreoli and Nick Ahmed on the Huskies.Â
Cal Poly enters the weekend with a 2-1 record after winning a home series against Missouri State. Joe Yorke leads the Mustangs offensively with seven runs batted in while Jake Steels is 7-14 (.500 AVG) to begin the season.Â
The Cal Bears are 3-1 on the season with a road series win at Houston and then earned a midweek victory at Stanford. Carson Crawford leads the Bears offense by going 6-14 (429 AVG) with three doubles, a homer and eight driven in. Crawford hit a grand slam homer against the Cardinal on Tuesday night.Â
