-> “It’s baseball, right?” Smith said. “That’s the first time we’ve faced adversity all year. That was the first series we’d lost the entire year, which is pretty impressive, honestly. Sometimes something like that needs to happen to get a team fired up.”
The 5-foot-11, 180 pound Smith, a three-sport athlete in high school in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, brought versatility and durability to UConn, starting 55 of 56 games as lead-off hitter and second baseman. He’s posted a .412 on-base percentage with 20 steals in 24 attempts and 55 runs scored. He made only seven errors all season, a .990 fielding percentage.
“This kid just wants to get better,” Penders said. “And he’s using this spring as a launching pad to improve his skills.” <-
-> UConn will line up its pitchers as it has all year, with Austin Peterson (9-2, 3.46 ERA), Pat Gallagher (8-3, 3.38) and Enzo Stefanoni (6-1, 2.91) to start the first three games. The Huskies’ ERA, 3.48, grew after they allowed 33 runs in three games in Georgetown’s hitter-friendly park, but the team has a huge run-differential at 455-231. <-