The University of Connecticut baseball team will look to rebound after a tough weekend in the 2014 Dodd Stadium College Baseball Classic when it plays a pair of non-conference midweek games against Northeastern and Brown. The Huskies will travel to Brookline, Mass. on Tuesday to face Northeastern at 3 p.m. before returning to J.O. Christian Field to host the Bears on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.UConn (13-16) will throw freshman RHP Andrew Zapata on Tuesday in the battle of the Huskies. The Staten Island, N.Y. native has appeared in nine games in 2014, making four starts, and holds a stellar 1.42 ERA. He has allowed just 16 hits in 31.2 innings of work and has recorded 18 punch-outs in his freshman campaign.
Despite a 14-1 victory over Yale last Wednesday, the Husky bats struggled over the weekend as Connecticut was only able to push across eight runs in three games. Sophomore 1B Bobby Melley (Barnstable, Mass.) still leads the team with a .352 batting average. He is joined by fellow slugger Blake Davey (Newport Beach, Calif.) as the only Husky players to record at least three home runs this season. The duo has been excellent in the middle of the UConn lineup this season, combining for 37 RBI and 102 total bases.
On Wednesday, senior LHP Brian Ward will earn the nod in his seventh start of 2014. The lefty last appeared in Friday’s contest with Bryant, coming in in relief and stymying the Bulldogs’ bats. Ward tossed the final 4.2 innings of the game, allowing just one run on four hits and also recorded a pair of strikeouts.
The Huskies have had success against both Northeastern and Brown in recent history. Connecticut sports a 36-24-1 all-time record against Northeastern and a 52-18-1 all-time mark vs. Brown.
Last season, Northeastern visited Storrs and escaped with a 4-2 victory. Junior OF Eric Yavarone (North Haven, Conn.) registered two hits but four Husky errors proved too much to handle. The following day, UConn defeated Brown, 11-6, backed by a three-RBI performance from Melley.