Men UConn baseball senior Christian Fedko heads to fourth straight NCAA regional: ‘It never gets old’ (Borges @ Hearst)

[huskymedic]

Great read on Feddy. Didn’t want to bury this one in the Selection Show thread.




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-> For the fourth straight year on Monday, inside a Burton Family Football Complex meeting room, Christian Fedko sat with his teammates to watch the NCAA College Baseball Selection Show.

And for the fourth straight year, more than any UConn baseball player who’s played under head coach Jim Penders the past two decades, Fedko saw the Huskies’ name announced.

“It never gets old,” Fedko said, shortly after he and his teammates celebrated a trip to the College Park Regional later this week. “I had the same butterflies I had when I was a freshman. My palms were sweating, but then when you see your name up there, it’s one of the greatest feelings in the world.” <-

 

[huskymedic]

 

[CL82]

Penders’ father, Jim Sr., was hit in the head by a ball on that field in 1963 and nearly died.

In fact, he was delivered last rites at nearby Prince George’s County Hospital. The elder Penders survived, but had to learn how to speak and read all over again. Two years later, he was captain of the UConn baseball team that went to the 1965 College World Series.

Wow.

 

[huskymedic]

-> "He's been an amazing captain, one of the best that we've ever had," coach Jim Penders said. "And it's difficult to do when you're not playing every day. But he has not wavered one bit with his leadership. He's just been fantastic. I'm very proud of him.

"It's one of the highlights of the season for me to look at a guy like that and say, all right, there must be something right with the culture if he's continuing to do what he does. Mostly, it's what is right with Christian Fedko and the Fedko family." <-

-> Penders has a feeling that Fedko will do something special during UConn's NCAA tournament run.

"I have confidence, and I'm saying this with goosebumps, he's going to get a big hit in the coming weeks," Penders said."Something is going to happen where he's going to need to be counted on in the batter's box and he's going to deliver, because he usually does in clutch spots." <-