CINCINNATI - The UConn baseball team (10-13) begins the BIG EAST Conference season with a three-game series at Xavier (12-13) beginning on Friday, March 28 at 3 pm. The series resumes on Saturday, March 29 at 2 pm and wraps up Sunday at 1 pm. All three games will be streamed on FloCollege and can be heard on MIXLR.

The Huskies closed out an 11-day, eight game spring break trip last weekend with a sweep against UNC Greensboro to finish the trip 5-3. LHP Oliver Pudvar and LHP Cayden Suchy both posted career-highs with 7.0 innings pitched. Pudvar became the first UConn pitcher to register double-digit strikeouts in a game this year with 10. While Suchy struck out nine. 

UConn is in the midst of a long road stretch to start the season with 27 of the first 30 games of the year being played away from Elliot Ballpark. 

The Huskies have a strength of schedule of 27 entering the weekend, while Xavier has played the No. 1 strength of schedule to this point in the season.

All-time UConn is 13-9 against Xavier with a 12-9 mark since UConn rejoined the BIG EAST in 2021. Last year the Huskies won the series (two-of-three) in Storrs against the Musketeers and then lost to Xavier in the BIG EAST Championship opening round. 

Sophomore Tyler Minick leads the Huskies with 29 hits, including seven home runs and 26 runs batted in. The third baseman is slugging .700 and has posted eight multi-hit games and six multi-RBI games.

Ryan Daniels missed a portion of spring break with injury but has returned and is hitting .344 with four doubles, one triple, four home runs and 16 runs batted in. 

Beau Root has started the last six games for the Huskies and is hitting .412 with 14 hits, one double and five runs batted in. 

Out of the bullpen, UConn closer Brady Afthim has appeared in 10 games with a 0.56 ERA. He is 1-1 with four saves and in 16.0 innings he has allowed one earned run, struck out 25 and held opponents. to a .226 batting average against.

Greg Shaw III has settled into the UConn bullpen with five consecutive scoreless outings that has covered 10.0 innings with just three hits allowed and 12 strikeouts. 

Pudvar leads the starters with a 3-0 record and 28.0 innings pitched in six appearances and four starts. The Shelburne, Vt. native has a 2.57 ERA and has a team-best 34 strikeouts.

Suchy is 2-3 with a 5.70 ERA and has made his two starts the last two weekends. He has seven appearances overall and has logged 23.2 innings with 25 strikeouts.