{"id":15510,"date":"2010-06-07T10:13:16","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T14:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=15510"},"modified":"2010-06-11T11:03:34","modified_gmt":"2010-06-11T15:03:34","slug":"best-season-in-uconn-baseball-history-comes-to-an-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/06\/best-season-in-uconn-baseball-history-comes-to-an-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Season in UConn Baseball History Comes to an End"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>UConn<\/a>
The Huskies play the University of Oregon in the 2010 Norwich Regional NCAA Baseball Tournament at Dodd Stadium on June 4. Photo by Kenneth Best<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Huskies baseball coach Jim Penders not only comes from a baseball family, he comes from a UConn baseball tradition. His father, Jim, a longtime high school coach, and his uncle, Tom, led the Huskies to the 1965 College World Series.<\/p>\n

So after watching his team eliminated 4-3 by the University of Oregon in the first round of the 2010 NCAA baseball tournament and completing the best Huskies season in 114 years by winning 48 games, it seemed natural for Penders to view his team\u2019s accomplishments with a historic perspective. He compared the work ethic of his 21st century players to the 19th-century founders of the University of Connecticut.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to outwork the opposition,\u201d Penders said on Sunday after the Huskies, hosts of the regional tournament, lost their second game in three days to Oregon at Dodd Stadium in Norwich. \u201cWe have won more games than any other team that has worn the uniform since 1896. Nobody can take that away. I talked to the guys about Charles and Augustus Storrs. They just wanted to be better farmers. The guys who first attended the University, that\u2019s where it started. That\u2019s what it\u2019s got to be about. We\u2019ve got to outwork everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Huskies\u2019 greatest baseball season included its first NCAA tournament win since 1979, after the team avenged a regular season loss to Central Connecticut State University on June 5 with a 25-5 victory over the Blue Devils. The Blue Devils were the team that had ended the Huskies\u2019 22-game winning streak in April.<\/p>\n

In the double-elimination format of the NCAA regional tournament, UConn dropped to the losers\u2019 bracket with Central Connecticut, which lost 11-3 to top-seeded Florida State on June 4. The Seminoles went on to beat Oregon 5-3 June 6 and moved on to the next round of the tournament.<\/p>\n

On June 6, the Huskies were again frustrated by Oregon\u2019s chipping, small ball style of play, dropping hits between the infield and outfield and aggressively advancing its runners with bunts and steals.<\/p>\n

A thunderstorm crossing the state moved into Norwich as UConn was batting in the top of the ninth inning. Billy Ferriter led off the inning with a single, but with lightning sighted, the game was stopped for about an hour.<\/p>\n

The Huskies, who had rallied for late game victories throughout the season, drew a roar from their fans when John Andreoli slapped an infield hit and moved to second on an Oregon throwing error. With both UConn runners in scoring position, Pierre LePage sent a towering drive to left field that sent Oregon freshman Andrew Mendenhall racing to the wall, where he leaped up and caught the ball against the billboard fence. Ferriter scored from third base for the Huskies to narrow the deficit to one run, before Ducks relief pitcher Madison Boer retired the final two UConn batters and ended UConn\u2019s season.<\/p>\n

Penders and his players said that while they were disappointed in ending their season, they viewed their accomplishments in 2010 by looking toward the future of the baseball program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made progress. We beat a good team yesterday and won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time in 31 years,\u201d Penders said. \u201cThey should walk out with their heads held high and know that they have gotten into what I think of as some uncharted territory. We talk about winning championships and that is what it’s about. Graduating our guys, reaching our academic potential, winning championships, and becoming better leaders and giving back \u2013 that is what the program is built on. We took steps this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

First baseman Mike Nemeth was elated by the season\u2019s accomplishments. \u201cI think everything we did was absolutely incredible,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was all positives, getting the name of the program out there, making a regional, and hosting a regional is a really huge deal, knowing that we do have a good baseball team, a growing program, and stable coaches that love doing their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all the other 15 NCAA regional tournament sites, the top seed was the host in 2010. The exception was the Norwich regional, where No. 2 UConn was awarded site host honors. It was the first time a baseball regional was hosted in New England in two decades and Friday night\u2019s enthusiastic crowd of 5,684 fans did not go unnoticed.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone at Central Connecticut is very appreciative of the people at the University of Connecticut for making this opportunity happen,\u201d said George Hickey, head coach for Central Connecticut. \u201cIt gave our kids a chance to play in a great environment in front of their family and friends. The fact that UConn stepped forward for college baseball in this part of the country is something that we across the state recognize.\u201d<\/p>\n

UConn athletics director Jeff Hathaway said getting the regional college baseball tournament play back to the northeast for the first time in 20 years was \u201can awfully good statement\u201d about UConn baseball. \u201cIt was just fantastic to see this ballpark with nearly 6,000 people on a great night,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a perfect scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second baseman LePage said the players \u201cwere really excited to come out here and play in front of all of these people. We don’t exactly get this kind of crowd in Storrs, so it was a nice change and we came out ready to play with all the energy in the world. It was fun seeing everyone from Connecticut out here supporting us, behind us and giving us everything they had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penders said that as he walked off the field, his thoughts were already focusing on next year. With the expectation that juniors LePage, Nemeth, and Mike Olt will be selected in the upcoming Major League Baseball draft, the Huskies will need to replace some of their best players.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are behind in recruiting,\u201d Penders said, noting the price of this season\u2019s successful post-season. \u201cBoston College has been on the road for a week and a half. I’m covering games tomorrow. We have to go out and get on the road quickly. I have been thinking about that since the last out. We have been hearing a lot from kids from regions that we don’t normally hear from. I want to get the best kids in Connecticut to stay in Connecticut and not only win Big East championships and regional championships, but national championships. … That is the goal now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Huskies, NCAA regional tournament hosts, lost to Oregon in the first round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-15510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 11:33:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15510"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15899,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510\/revisions\/15899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15510"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=15510"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=15510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}