The UConn baseball team completed its improbable journey, coming from the bottom of the bracket to win the Big East Tournament with a 8-1 victory over Notre Dame Sunday in the championship game at Clearwater, Fla.
Junior Anthony Marzi, starting on two day’s rest, pitched brilliantly for UConn, allowing only four hits in a complete game, striking out six to win the most important game of his college career. LJ Mazzilli set the tone with a two-run homer in the first inning, and the Huskies never looked back, breaking it open with Tom Verdi’s two-RBI triple in the third. The Huskies played flawless defense, making a number of difficult plays, especially on the infield, and pounded out 17 hits, four by freshman Vinny Siena.
The Huskies, with 19 Connecticut-born players on the roster, earned the Big East’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournamnent and returned home Sunday night to await their next destination. The NCAA will announce the selections and pairing for its 16 Regional sites at noon on Monday.
UConn won the Big East Tournament for the first time since 1994. Even its 2011 team, which was seeded No.1 and had 10 players drafted, lost the league tournament before going to the NCAA as an at-large entry and reaching the Super Regionals.
The Huskies (34-26) finished 9-15 in Big East play during the regular season, losing 11 of their last 12, making the tournament as the eighth and final seed. During the week in Clearwater, however, they beat three teams – top-seeded Louisville, No. 4 South Florida and No. 7 Notre Dame – that had swept three game series against them. As a result, they are headed to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years, encompassing the careers of UConn’s seniors.
UConn defeated No. 5 Rutgers, 2-1, on Saturday to reach the final, the last championship game to be played in the Big East Conference as it has been known.
UConn coach Jim Penders began the day with a surprising move, starting Marzi on two-day’s rest. Marzi was knocked out early in UConn’s victory over South Florida on Thursday night, throwing 75 pitches, but he was the Huskies’ most effective pitcher – 7 1/3 strong innings – when they were swept three games at Notre Dame in late April.
“He wanted the ball,” Penders said, during his fifth-inning interview on ESPNU. “I asked him late Saturday night, ‘how many championship games have you pitched in your life?’ He said ‘four.’ I said, ‘how many have you won?’ He said, ‘four.’ … I said, ‘go make it five.'”
Marzi retired the first eight batters, as the Huskies built him a 6-0 lead, knocking out Adam Norton, ND’s best pitcher, working on three day’s rest, in the third inning. Billy Ferriter singled with one out in the first and Mazzilli hit his sixth homer of the season, driving a change-up over the left-center wall.
Mazzilli also saved a run in the third inning with a diving stop at second base.
Tom Verdi doubled and scored on an error in the second inning. Bobby Melley singled to start the third, Max McDowell bunted him to second and Jon Testani’s bad-hop single scored the run. ND made two pitching changes in the inning, bringing in its closer, Dan Slania, to try to stop the momentum. But Verdi tripled to right to score two more runs and making it 6-0.
Marzi, mixing fastball and curve, took a two-hitter into the seventh, when Trey Mancini led off with a home run to make it 6-1. Then Marzi retired the next three, and Stanley Paul got the run back with an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh, UConn’s 13th hit. Mazzilli singled and scored on Siena’s fourth hit in the eighth inning.
Marzi, over pitches, started the ninth with a four-pitch walk, but retired the side, getting a spectacular catch by rightfielder Jon Testani. He threw 113 pitches.
Story by Dom Amore, Hartford Courant