GAME NOTES | MIXLR

LOS ANGELES - The UConn baseball team (1-5) continues non-conference play with a three-game weekend in the Southern California Classic against USC, UCLA and Vanderbilt. The Huskies open the weekend against USC on Friday, February 28 at 9:30 p.m. ET at Great Park in Irvine, CA with the game being stream on B1G+ and MIXLR.

UConn faces UCLA on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET on B1G+/MIXLR and Vanderbilt on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on MIXLR. Saturday and Sunday's games will be played at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

The Huskies are 3-1 against the Trojans with the last meeting coming in 2022. Last year, the Huskies won the lone meeting with the Bruins, 5-2, and UConn is 0-4 all-time against the Commodores with the last meeting coming in the MLB4 Tournament in Scottsdale, AZ in 2020. 

UConn is coming off its first win of the season with a 5-3 win against FAU on Sunday in 10 innings. Sophomore Tyler Minick hit a game-tying two-run homer in the 8th inning and junior Ryan Daniels gave UConn the lead with a two-run homer in the 10th inning. Closer Brady Afthim tossed 3.0 scoreless frames to earn the first win of the year for the Huskies. 

Slow Start... The Huskies started the year 0-5 for the first time since 2008. It is only the third time under 22nd year head coach Jim Penders that the Huskies lost their first five games of the year. 

The Huskies are used to slow starts to seasons with a 3-9 start in 2024, 4-10 in 2021, 4-5 in 2019 and 6-6 in 2018. All years that the Huskies rebounded and made the NCAA Tournament and three of those four years the Huskies earned at-large berths to Regionals.

Welcome Back Ty... Sophomore Tyler Minick returned to the lineup after missing opening weekend after taking a pitch to the face. The UConn third baseman returned against FAU and promptly went 5-15 with a double, three home runs and 10 RBI. 

The Reading, Pa. native homered in all three games with a three-run home run on Friday, his third career grand slam on Saturday and game-tying two run homer in the eighth inning on Sunday.

Breakout Daniels... The Huskies are looking for a breakout season for second baseman Ryan Daniels and he is off to a good start. The Meriden, CT native is hitting .440 (11-25) with team-leading six runs scored, one double, two home runs and eight runs batted in. On Sunday, Daniels hit the go-ahead two-run home run in the 10th inning to lift UConn to its first win of the year.

Offensive Output... The UConn offense is off to one of its better starts to the season with 45 runs (7.5 runs per game) in the first six games. The team is batting .309 with Daniels (.440), Grant MacArthur (.409), Aidan Dougherty (.357) and Minick (.333) all hitting over .333 with regular playing time.

Freebies From The Mound... The UConn pitching staff has gotten off to a tough start this season with the staff walking 39 batters and hitting 11 more in the first six games. That's an average of 8.33 freebies per game. The staff has allowed 14 doubles and 11 home runs and currently hold an 8.65 ERA. The starting rotation has pitched 3.0 innings or more on just two occasions with the longest outing of the year being 4.1 innings. Brady Afthim has been a bright spot with 4.0 shutout innings, five strikeouts and opponents hitting .077 against him. LHP Oliver Pudvar has been solid as well with a team-high 7.0 innings in his two appearances and just two walks to six punch outs. RHP Jude Abbadessa is off to a strong start with scoreless outings in his two appearances out of the pen.