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Men UConn Baseball 2023

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From this article, there is a bit on UConn baseball:

<UCONN

Connecticut

The Huskies made plenty of headlines during the postseason last year by winning the College Park Regional and almost advancing to the College World Series. Jim Penders’ club fell just short to Stanford after winning the first game of the Super Regional. Austin Peterson and Pat Gallagher are gone, but Ian Cooke is suited to take on a much more important role and the transfer duo of Andrew Sears and Stephen Quigley had strong falls. Sears is interesting with his fastball up to 93-94 mph from the left side. Offensively, there’s plenty of experience in this lineup, and it all starts with David Smith and Ben Huber. Both are dynamic hitters, with Smith having that ultra-athletic element as part of his game. Meanwhile, Huber hit .327 last season with 11 home runs and 67 RBIs. Do not be surprised when the Huskies make a Regional and advance to yet another Super Regional.>
 
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Very positive words here on transfer pitchers Andrew Sears and Stephen Quigley. Sounds like the weekend starting rotation could very well feature Ian Cooke, Sears, and Stephen Quigley from what is said during this interview, of course D1Baseball.com has mentioned Sears and Stephen Quigley positively before when posting stuff on UConn baseball this fall and winter.

UConn baseball has 4 game weekend series during 3 of the first 5 weekends of the spring season. Since they also have a weekday game against Hartford in between the third and fourth weekends, the Huskies will pretty much be going with a 4 man starting rotation early in the season, which would lead to something of a competition for the weekend starting spots once the three game Big East conference games start up during the eighth weekend of the spring season. Assuming the three pitchers mentioned above are the leaders for starting on the weekends, I'm inclined to think that Brady Afthim could be the fourth starter during the early part of the season, based on what little news has come out about the team. We'll see who else presents a challenge for starting pitching jobs when the Chris Jones interviews with the coaching staff come out prior to the start of the season. Overall, I'm inclined to think UConn will have pretty good depth on the pitching staff this spring, but we'll see how that all works out.
 
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Very positive words here on transfer pitchers Andrew Sears and Stephen Quigley. Sounds like the weekend starting rotation could very well feature Ian Cooke, Sears, and Stephen Quigley from what is said during this interview, of course D1Baseball.com has mentioned Sears and Stephen Quigley positively before when posting stuff on UConn baseball this fall and winter.

UConn baseball has 4 game weekend series during 3 of the first 5 weekends of the spring season. Since they also have a weekday game against Hartford in between the third and fourth weekends, the Huskies will pretty much be going with a 4 man starting rotation early in the season, which would lead to something of a competition for the weekend starting spots once the three game Big East conference games start up during the eighth weekend of the spring season. Assuming the three pitchers mentioned above are the leaders for starting on the weekends, I'm inclined to think that Brady Afthim could be the fourth starter during the early part of the season, based on what little news has come out about the team. We'll see who else presents a challenge for starting pitching jobs when the Chris Jones interviews with the coaching staff come out prior to the start of the season. Overall, I'm inclined to think UConn will have pretty good depth on the pitching staff this spring, but we'll see how that all works out.

I am hearing they are stretching out 8 guys. The 4 you mentioned plus Sullivan , Quinn, Coe and Ellison. Going to be some strong competition in the first month or so for the starting spots. The depth is there though.
 
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I am hearing they are stretching out 8 guys. The 4 you mentioned plus Sullivan , Quinn, Coe and Ellison. Going to be some strong competition in the first month or so for the starting spots. The depth is there though.

Those are the guys I would have expected to get streched out for potential starting pitching opportunities in addition to the guys that I had previously mentioned.
 
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Those are the guys I would have expected to get streched out for potential starting pitching opportunities in addition to the guys that I had previously mentioned.

Expect Willis and Kirby will anchor the back end of the bullpen, and the guys above who do not end up starting will join them.

I can understand stretching out Coe, as he has shown in the past that he can be quite good for multiple innings. Personally, I think his best use on this team would be as a long man out of the bullpen. Whatever the case, and however he gets used, it will be no surprise that he will get plenty of time on the mound this coming season. If Coe happens to get used mostly out of the bullpen, I would expect he will see plenty of time in tight games. It has been reported that Coe is now getting scholarship money, so good things are definitely expected of him.
 
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<Dominic Freeberger, grad transfer from UNC Asheville, where he hit .333 and made the All-Big South team, has Penders excited. “He was a Husky, we just didn’t know it,” Penders said. “He has a real toughness and fit in great.”

Luke Broadhurst from Stafford, transferred from UConn to ESCU, where he hit .392 in 153 games and helped the Warriors win the D-III championship last season, and is now back in Storrs as a grad student. Freeberger and Broadhurst can play multiple positions. Penders also believes freshman Niko Brini, a freshman who entertains with magic tricks — “cape, top hat, the whole bit” — can win an outfield spot and create magic on the bases.

Will Nowak, from South Windsor and, more recently UHart, could help an experienced bullpen. Two more state products, Matt Garbowski from New Fairfield and Ryan Hyde from Berlin, will share the task of replacing Matt Donlan, now in the Red Sox organization, behind the plate.>
 
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<Dominic Freeberger, grad transfer from UNC Asheville, where he hit .333 and made the All-Big South team, has Penders excited. “He was a Husky, we just didn’t know it,” Penders said. “He has a real toughness and fit in great.”

Luke Broadhurst from Stafford, transferred from UConn to ESCU, where he hit .392 in 153 games and helped the Warriors win the D-III championship last season, and is now back in Storrs as a grad student. Freeberger and Broadhurst can play multiple positions. Penders also believes freshman Niko Brini, a freshman who entertains with magic tricks — “cape, top hat, the whole bit” — can win an outfield spot and create magic on the bases.

Will Nowak, from South Windsor and, more recently UHart, could help an experienced bullpen. Two more state products, Matt Garbowski from New Fairfield and Ryan Hyde from Berlin, will share the task of replacing Matt Donlan, now in the Red Sox organization, behind the plate.>
I’m not able to access article. Was there any mention of Ryan Daniels or Gavin Gregor? Also I am planning on posting my yearly chart next weekend.

Go Huskies!!!!
 
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I’m not able to access article. Was there any mention of Ryan Daniels or Gavin Gregor? Also I am planning on posting my yearly chart next weekend.

Go Huskies!!!!

No mention of Daniels or Gregor in this article. There was a mention of the potential weekend starting pitching rotation, but the same players were also mentioned in the D1Baseball.com interview from a day or two ago that was posted in this thread.
 
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<Dominic Freeberger, grad transfer from UNC Asheville, where he hit .333 and made the All-Big South team, has Penders excited. “He was a Husky, we just didn’t know it,” Penders said. “He has a real toughness and fit in great.”

Luke Broadhurst from Stafford, transferred from UConn to ESCU, where he hit .392 in 153 games and helped the Warriors win the D-III championship last season, and is now back in Storrs as a grad student. Freeberger and Broadhurst can play multiple positions. Penders also believes freshman Niko Brini, a freshman who entertains with magic tricks — “cape, top hat, the whole bit” — can win an outfield spot and create magic on the bases.

Will Nowak, from South Windsor and, more recently UHart, could help an experienced bullpen. Two more state products, Matt Garbowski from New Fairfield and Ryan Hyde from Berlin, will share the task of replacing Matt Donlan, now in the Red Sox organization, behind the plate.>

As I have mentioned in these threads, I went to some of the fall ball games and scrimmages. I saw Niko Brini play a few times, and I liked what I saw of him. Figured Brini would be competing with Jake Studley for a starting outfield spot. I expect Dom Freeberger and David Smith to be starters in the infield at the beginning of the season, it is always possible they could see some playing time in the outfield as well given their defensive flexibility. Whatever the case, if Brini is not a starter in the outfield, he is likely get some playing time off the bench at the beginning of the season.

My wife and I are season ticket holders for the Norwich Sea Unicorns of the Futures League, so we got to see Ryan Hyde play a number of times once he joined the team for the summer after UConn's run in the NCAA Tournament ended. I liked what I saw of Hyde when he played. The Futures League is pretty much an entry level collegiate summer baseball league in New England, certainly not on the level of either the Cape Cod League or the NECBL. Still, I liked what I saw of Hyde when he got playing time. I would think that Matt Garbowski is expected to be the starting catcher, but we'll see Hyde gets playing time as the backup catcher.
 

uconnbaseball

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Another matchup with that talented hippie, Lowder! Rutgers rematch might be fun…

As we know, this is subject to change.
 

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