GREENVILLE — Few would have thought before the weekend that between the Connecticut women’s basketball team and the Huskies’ baseball program that the UConn diamond crew would be the ones moving forward with a winning streak.
A 5-1 victory at East Carolina on Sunday completed a three-game American Athletic Conference sweep and accounted for the Huskies’ fifth straight win.
The UConn ladies saw their winning streak stopped at 111 games on Friday night in the NCAA Tournament semifinals with a 66-64 overtime loss to Mississippi State.
The baseball Pirates (18-11, 0-3 AAC) were picked as preseason favorites in the league race but managed just five runs in the three games at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
UConn’s mound mastery continued Sunday as starter Mason Feole (4-0) did not allow a hit until a two-out single by Nick Barber in the fifth.
The Huskies held a 4-0 lead by that point. Feole went seven innings and allowed five hits. He allowed one unearned run in the seventh. The freshman left-hander walked one and struck out six.
Alex LeFevre reached on an error to lead off the third for UConn (16-9) and he moved to second on Keith Krueger’s sacrifice bunt. Anthony Prato’s RBI single gave the visitors a 1-0 lead. ECU’s second error of the inning allowed the Huskies go up, 2-0.
Singles by Willy Yahn and Zac Susi started the fifth for UConn and signaled the end of the day for Pirates freshman lefty Jake Agnos (1-1).
A two-out error in the outfield brought both runners in for a 4-0 Huskies lead.
Yahn’s RBI single in the sixth completed UConn’s scoring.
The Pirates avoided a shutout in the seventh after Barber’s second hit. He went to third on a hit by T.J. Riles and a throwing error by Feole.
Wesley Phillips had a sacrifice fly to score Barber.
ECU held an 8-5 edge in hits as Riles and Barber each went 2-for-3, but the hosts committed five errors that contributed to four unearned runs.
The Pirates visit North Carolina (22-6) on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. start. The Tar Heels won, 6-2, in Greenville on March 22.
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