Men How team approach lifted UConn to NCAA baseball regional win over Maryland: ‘It’s powerful stuff’ (Borges @Hearst/Amore @Courant)

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Alternate access link here <<

 

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The Courant version…




-> This moment would have been unfathomable for most of these UConn players a year or two ago. Catcher Matt Donlan, who hit a grand slam and had five RBIs Monday, was playing at Division II Stonehill College. Ben Huber, who had the winning hit against Wake Forest in the regional opener, was at Division II Limestone College. Smith was at La Salle University and informed the school was discontinuing baseball. Bushling came from a California junior college. Others were at Power 5 schools looking for a change and perhaps a chance at a bigger role, including Austin Peterson at Purdue and Willis at Vanderbilt.

All of them found each other at UConn. “People make a joke, ‘it’s ‘Last Chance U,’” said Willis, as he rode the Huskies team bus back home to Storrs on Tuesday morning. “But it’s awesome. It’s a different environment here. If you just want to play baseball at the highest level, get after it, go to those 6 a.m. lifts and play in the snow, you’ll find success. Everyone on this bus right now is what we’re about. It’s pretty easy to build chemistry when everybody’s pulling for each other.”<-

-> “There’s nothing like it,” Donlan said. “In that atmosphere, that environment, those fans. That was amazing for anybody with anything to do with the program. I’ve never been a part of anything like this. We’ve got guys from all over the country, all different backgrounds, different paths to get here. We use that as an advantage. Yeah, we have amazing chemistry and we all love each other, but we learn from each other from different experiences. It’s pretty special, and it starts with the culture the coaches have built here.” <-

 

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Here is a freeze from the Alleyne- Huber Interference play. I’m posting it here just to create an image that I can use on another site.

They are claiming that the baseball wasn’t anywhere near Huber and thus there could be no interference call.