Days after returning home from their 5-4 West Coast road trip and sweeping a double header on the final day, a single swing of the bat in the top of the third inning did the Huskies in as they lost to Quinnipiac in Storrs, 8-3.
With a pair of free base runners on via a walk and an error, Alex Irizarry powered a shot towards right field. With fans allowed to sit in the grass for the first time this season, the ball landed in front of a grouping of lawn chairs for a three-run home run. The shot gave the Bobcats (8-14) a 3-0 lead, one they would never relinquish as they went on to take down the Huskies (12-14).
“It’s a shame,” Penders said. ”We tend to play our best baseball at Elliot Ballpark. Today was a little bit of what we’ve seen periodically throughout the season, away from home, too, is [that] we have some abysmal baseball.”
Huskies starter Austion Trumpour wasn’t long for this game after the long ball. The graduate student, making his first start as a Husky, surrendered three runs, two earned, over 3.2 innings.
The Huskies got one back in the fourth after Cam Righi snuck a wormburner past diving second baseman Kyle Garbowski for a base hit and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Nater Wachter floated a liner into left field to bring him home.
That was all the Huskies could muster against Joseph Hiller, who came into the day with a 9.00 ERA through five appearances. The rookie, making his first career start, largely shut down the Huskies lineup around Wachter’s run-scoring hit. The right-hander struck out five in four innings and lowered his ERA to 2.25.
In the top of the seventh, Christian Smith sent a high fly ball towards right field with the wind blowing out. Though right fielder Chris Polemeni looked like he might have a play on the ball, the drive just kept carrying. Polemeni met the wall and tried to go up to get it, but the ball clanged off the chain link fence for a solo shot to lead off the frame.
Later in the inning, Garbowski grounded a ball into the shift as shortstop Rob Rispoli moved towards second base with a chance at two. Instead, the ball rolled up and out of his glove to land a second baserunner for the Bobcats.
Two batters later, Rispoli again bobbled a hard grounder on the infield grass that slipped past the heel of his glove. The redshirt sophomore collected and fired the ball to first in time for one out, but missed a chance to throw home to cut down the run. The score sat at 5-1 to end the inning.
From there, the Bobcats just kept piling on. Rob Gilchrist walked two of the first three batters to start the inning, and Smith made him pay. Sending a line drive double to left, the throw from Wachter arrived late at the plate as the second runner came in to score, making it 7-1.
Smith finished the day 3 for 5 at the plate with three RBIs.
Evan Hamberger entered one batter later, leading to an unsuccessful one-batter outing for the left-handed specialist. The lefty-swinging Garbowski sent Hamberger’s second and final pitch down the right field line. The ball bounced beneath the wall and took a tough ricochet, allowing Smith to score easily and Garbowski to cruise into second for a standup double that chased Hamberger almost immediately.
Finally escaping the top half of the inning and using three pitchers to get there, the Huskies tried their best to claw out from the sizable hole. Though a comeback was never likely, Righi made the score a little less lopsided. After Marshall worked a walk, the freshman catcher lifted a hanging fly ball inches over the outstretched glove of right fielder Chase Camac and off the top of the concrete behind the padding on the wall for a wall-scraping round tripper.
“He’s probably been our most consistent guy over the last seven or eight games,” Penders said. “He’s been excellent.”
The home run was the Huskies’ final hit of the game. As Bobcats head coach John Delaney jumped into the postgame huddle on the visitors’ side, eliciting a loud celebration from his players, the Huskies’ huddle in left field fell piercingly silent.
“The bigger issue is we don’t play with an edge,” Penders said. ”Quinnipiac ‘out-energied’ us today, and I am not used to that. I don’t know how to fix that with the energy. I mean, you gotta want it as much, if not more, than the other team. It seemed like Quinnipiac wanted it a lot more today.”
The loss left the Huskies with a losing record (1-2) at home for the first time this season.
“We haven’t been over .500 yet. It seems like we’ve gotten close a few times, but every time we get close, we seem to take a step backwards,” Penders said. “This was a big step backwards today. It feels like we lost five games in one day.”
UConn will have to turn it around quickly, as the Huskies open Big East conference play on Friday against Xavier, game one of UConn’s first home weekend series of the season. First pitch is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. The game will stream live on ESPN+.
“The good news is we have a lot of games left still,” Penders said. “But, if we can’t get out of our own way, it’s gonna be a long year.”
