As he walked off the field last June at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, where the Huskies had completed its record-setting season and hosted the NCAA regional baseball tournament, head coach Jim Penders said his thoughts were already focusing on the 2011 season. The price of success in winning 48 games and a national ranking was that UConn would lose at least two of their best players to the Major League Baseball draft – Pierre LePage (Chicago Cubs) and Mike Olt (Texas Rangers) – and the coaching staff would have to quickly catch up on recruiting. There were already great expectations for the near future.

So with a Top 25 pre-season ranking in 2011 and anticipating a quick start, it was not surprising that the Huskies, a team accustomed to the role of underdog, stumbled a bit early in the season, before hitting their stride in April.

“When there’s outside expectations, I think initially we might have let those creep in, even though we’ve warned against it and prepared for it,” Penders says. “There’s nothing to completely prepare you for it until you’re in the season. We’ve always been more comfortable as the underdog. We unfortunately became the underdog again by our performance.”

While awaiting the spring thaw, the Huskies early-season road trips to Florida, Texas, and California – against several teams that competed in last year’s NCAA Tournament – found the team playing .500 baseball. However, returning to Storrs and the opening of Big East play in late March and early April resulted in the team finding its hitting stride in winning seven straight games. Penders hopes his team has turned the corner.

“If we can play what our stats are – and start winning some one-run games – we could have a season to remember,” he says. “I have to give the kids a lot of credit. We’ve played the toughest schedule in the history of the program. We’ve played more top 25 teams, more games against teams that were in the NCAA last year than we ever had.”

With a core of experienced players who were part of last year’s NCAA team, the pitching staff is again led by seniors Greg Nappo (3-2) and Bob Van Woert (3-0), and junior Matt Barnes (6-2), with strong relief from Elliott Glynn (8 saves).

“Matt Barnes, by far, has been our star,” says Penders. “When you’re able to get the weekend off right with a guy throw a complete game, keep his pitch count down, blow a 96-m.p.h. fastball by people and announce his presence, it’s a huge weapon. I don’t think we’ve truly had that since Tim Norton in 2006-07.”

At the plate, senior first baseman Mike Nemeth (.333, 21 RBI) and junior outfielder George Springer (.353, 28 RBI) are keeping up the same pace as they did last season, with help from junior outfielder John Andreoli (.279, 13 RBI) and junior shortstop Nick Ahmed (.303, 17 RBI). Increasingly sophomore infielder L.J. Mazzilli (.294, 8 RBI) is gaining confidence, along with junior Ryan Fuller (.302, 23 RBI), who was a member of last year’s Avery Point campus team that played in the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series.

“Mazzilli has come on strong, once we moved him into the leadoff spot,” says Penders. “He could be a really exciting offensive player. He can run, hit for power, hit for average. Fuller has given us some power. More importantly, he’s a force behind Nemeth or Springer. He’s been able to drive in some big runs for us.”

Penders says that this season, hitting with the new NCAA rules on metal bats presents a challenge to score more runs without extra base hits. Concerned with safety, the NCAA changed the specifications of its bats so that metal bats must compare more favorably with wooden bats in terms of batted ball speed – how hard and fast the ball will explode off the bat.

“We’ve got eight home runs so far this year. Last year at this time we had 20,” says Penders. “The numbers across the country are way down. We’ve got to manufacture runs, be able to run, steal bases, move one base at a time, rather than rely on the extra base hit.”

Big East Conference play will be the team’s primary focus for the balance of the season, with traditionally strong nationally-ranked teams such as Louisville and St. John’s and improved play from Georgetown, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame. The Huskies won two of three games last weekend on the road against the Fighting Irish.

“It’s always a dogfight [the conference] and it always comes down to the last weekend,” Penders says. “It’s the toughest I’ve ever seen top to bottom, and I’ve been in it 19 years playing or coaching. There’s a lot of accountability now. Coaches are working at it, players are working at it. I think the guys across the league have improved their programs as best they can. Hopefully we’re in that category too.”

Eight of the top 12 teams from the regular season qualify for the Big East Tournament and the chance for the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The UConn baseball game against Brown scheduled for Wednesday at J.O. Christian Field in Storrs has been postponed due to the inclement weather. The game will be played on Thursday, April 14 at 2:45 p.m.