SB secures 2 wins on Saturday as pitching dominance continues

Saturday, February 26

Charleston, S.C.

10:00 AM

University of Connecticut

6-6

Appalachian State University

6-4

UConn

Appalachian State

Photo by: Stephen Slade

SB secures 2 wins on Saturday as pitching dominance continues

2/26/2022 3:59:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Charleston, SC – Huskies continue to dominate in Cougar Classic. Have now won four straight games.

In the first game of two on Saturday, the Huskies edged out the Appalachian State Mountaineers 2-1.

Junior Meghan O'Neil went the distance for the Huskies pitching a complete game. She finished with an incredible stat line of eight strikeouts, one unearned run, and only three hits given up. This is what O'Neil had to say on her outing, "Today was a great team win, I told myself to keep fighting for the team and attacking the hitters with my best". O'Neil now holds a 3-2 record with a 3.33 ERA on the year.

The Mountaineers jumped out in front 1-0 in the third inning. The Huskies responded quickly in the very next inning with a home run off the bat of Senior Sami Barnett knotting the game at 1. Reese Guevarra would give UConn the lead for good in the fifth on a bloop single to left, scoring the winning run.

In the second game of the day, the Huskies run ruled the Western Carolina Catamounts 8-0 in five innings.

Freshman Elise Sokolsky got the nod for the Huskies pitching five shutout innings with five strikeouts.

The Huskies got out to an early 1-0 lead in the first on a bloop single to left by Barnett scoring Guevarra. The UConn offense exploded in the fourth scoring seven runs to put the game out of reach for the Catamounts. Erika Coreth started the rally by scoring Lexi Hastings on a single to center, giving the Huskies a 2-0 lead. Briana Marcelino came up big for the Huskies scoring two more runs on a double to left center making it 4-0.

Jana Sanden worked a walk with the bases loaded putting up another run on the board for the Huskies. Barnett hit a loud sac fly to the warning track, scoring another Husky runner. Hastings and Emily Piergustavo got in on the hit party with a pair of RBI singles putting the Huskies in control 8-0.

Head coach Laura Valentino had this to say about her team's performance on the weekend so far, "I am proud of how our team has responded this weekend with fight and energy. We pride ourselves on pitching and defense and our pitching staff brought their competitive edge to the mound this weekend. Offensively, our lineup is tough to beat when we continuously have each other's back, one through nine. I'm looking forward to seeing us execute the little things and play hard tomorrow."

Huskies will look to sweep the weekend in a rematch against Appalachian State Sunday at 11:00am.