STORRS — There wasn’t a whole lot to say, but a whole lot to think about. The UConn baseball team , after dominating the Big East all season , took an early, rather unceremonious exit from the conference tournament. After failing to get the winning run in from third with no outs in the ninth, they lost to Xavier in 11 innings , the completion of a suspended game.
Then after leading four different times, they lost to Georgetown in 10 innings . It was double-elimination, two-and-out in a matter of hours last Thursday. They tried to get an earlier flight home, but couldn’t and Coach Jim Penders decided the Huskies, who’d been away from home a week and a half, had enough of hotels.
So the players and coaches were going to board the bus in Mason, Ohio, on Friday morning and ride home, a good 14 hours with a couple of stops. “The first couple of hours were a little bad,” senior pitcher Garret Coe said , “it was still stinging a little, but being around each other for that long was probably good for us.” On everyone’s mind: Was the season over? Were the seniors’ careers over? Had this one terrible day wiped out months of accomplishment? Or would the Huskies gather on Monday get a reprieve from the NCAA and a ticket to the Field of 64 ? “Personally, I was very confident, I think the coaches were pretty confident, I’m pretty sure everyone was pretty confident we would get a bid,” said catcher Matt Garbowski , a junior.
“Because we deserved it.” Penders, h.
