Caguas, Puerto Rico – The UConn baseball team begins its 2025 campaign by participating in the inaugural Puerto Rico Challenge, beginning on Friday, February 14 at 10 a.m. ET / 11 a.m. AST against Stetson at Parque Yldefonso Sola Morales.

The weekend in the Caribbean are the first outside the United States during the regular season in program history and the 10 a.m. ET start time on Friday is the first D1 college baseball game in 2025.

UConn does have two players that have Puerto Rican heritage with Hector Alejandro and Gabriel Tirado having ties to the island.  

The rest of the Puerto Rico Challenge consists of a Saturday, February 15 contest against Missouri at 4 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. AST and Sunday, February 16  against Penn State at 7 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. AST. All three games will be video streamed on ESPN+. You can also listen to all three games on MIXLR with Chris Jones entering his 15^th year calling games for the HookC.

UConn enters the year coming off its third Super Regional appearance in program history after winning the 2024 Norman Regional. It was the sixth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance for the Huskies, setting a D1 New England record.

The Huskies have won four-straight BIG EAST regular season crowns and have been voted by the BIG EAST coaches as the favorites in 2025.

RHP Ian Cooke, coming off winning the 2024 BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year, was voted the Preseason BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year while first baseman Maddix Dalena was named Preseason BIG EAST Player of the Year.

Bryan Padilla, Tyler Minick, Caleb Shpur and Brady Afthim joined those Huskies on the Preseason All-BIG EAST team.

Here is a breakdown of how the Huskies look entering the 2025 campaign.

Catchers

The Huskies return 2024 Second Team All-BIG EAST performer and senior team captain Matt Garbowski. The backstop hit .285 for the Huskies in 2024 with six doubles, four homers and 20 RBI. Freshmen Connor Lane and Gabriel Tirado join Garbowski behind the plate. Lane joins the Huskies after taking home 2024 Gatorade Connecticut High School Player of the year while Tirado earned 2024 FCBL All-Star honors last season for the New Britain Bees.  

Infielders

The infield brings plenty of experience back with Dalena, Padilla, Minick and Ryan Daniels all returning. Daniels makes his return after being limited to 20 games last year before a hip injury ended his season. Dalena leads the UConn returners with 13 home runs and 43 runs batted in last season. Minick brings double-digit home run potential after hitting nine home runs last season including three in the postseason.

Team captain Bryan Padilla committed just six errors last year and collected 55 hits, 13 doubles, six homers, 39 RBI, 31 runs scored and 30 walks. Daniels had five extra base hits and five stolen bases before his season was cut short.  

All four bring All-BIG EAST potential and will be supplemented by redshirt freshman Rob Rispoli, San Joaquin Delta College transfer Grant MacArthur and freshman Jack LaRose. Freshman Anthony Belisario brings versatility that could aid on the dirt or in the outfield.

Outfield

Caleb Shpur is the lone returner in the UConn outfield after consistently seeing his name at the top of the lineup card in 2024. The East Canaan, CT native led the team with 26 stolen bases in 49 starts leads all returners with 48 runs scored.

Shpur is joined in the outfield by some talented newcomers. Sam Biller (Loyola Marymount), Aidan Dougherty (Linn Benton CC), Carter Groen (Iona), Beau Root (Middlebury) all transferred in last summer and bring experience to the UConn outfield.

Pitching Staff

The UConn pitching staff contains 24 pitchers but only five pitched more than 19.0 innings for the Huskies in 2024 and four others that saw time on the mound for UConn last year (Charlie West, Cam Mayer, Sean Finn and Hector Alejandro).

Ian Cooke, Gabe Van Emon and Tommy Ellisen all bring starting experience and those three will start games this weekend for the Huskies. Van Emon will start Friday while Cooke goes Saturday and Ellisen on Sunday. Afthim returns as the UConn closer after securing eight saves last year and leading the Huskies with a 2.49 ERA.

UConn brings in experience through the transfer portal with Evan Hamberger (Spokane CC), Oliver Pudvar (Manhattan), Greg Shaw III (Manhattan), Sam Hutchinson (CCSU) and JT Caruso (Miami).

The Huskies will also get a boost from a few returning Huskies that didn't see time on the mound last season. Jude Abbadessa, Kyle Peters and Thomas Galusha all make returns from injury in 2025.

Ben Schild, Devin Wolff, Frank Spirito IV will also look to make an impact when they return from injury over the upcoming weeks.

Cayden Suchy, Drew Smith, Cole Taylor and Owen Norrell all join the Huskies as incoming freshman arms.