UConn baseball tops New Haven, 9-2

Evan Menzel made history on Wednesday evening, hitting for the cycle in UConn’s home opener, a 9-2 win over New Haven.

After doubling in the first inning and singling through the right side of the infield in the third, he smacked a deep triple to right center in the seventh to give himself a chance if he were to get one more at bat.

He received that opportunity just one inning later. On an 0-2 count in the eighth, Menzel lined one into left, seemingly ending his chances at the feat. As he rounded second and began to pull up, Chargers left fielder Jaylin Manson stuck both of his arms above his head, signaling for a ground rule double. Menzel started running again. 

Instead of waiting for the umps to come check the ball, Manson pulled it out from under the wall, killing any chance at the play being ruled in the Chargers’ favor. Manson threw it in, but it was too late. Menzel had completed the cycle on an improbable inside-the-park home run.

“It was definitely shocking,” Menzel said. “Coach Pender tells us to run hard all the time, and, you know, obviously, I should have been doing that. But got lucky with the kid reaching for the ball,” Menzel said.

The cycle was the first for a UConn player since Brian Esposito, currently a bench coach for the San Diego Padres, did it in 1999. Head coach Jim Penders said that he couldn’t remember a Husky ever hitting for the cycle.

“[The team] said it in the huddle afterwards, and I didn’t even realize that he had that,” Penders said. “I should have. 
But no, he didn’t get the game ball because I gave it to Tristan [Aasland]. It was his first win. Evan was probably deserving of it. But I did say, ‘wow, that was an unorthodox cycle with that home run.’”

That win for Aasland was both his first of the season and his first as a Husky. After allowing five earned runs and taking a loss in his UConn debut a few weeks ago, the Bellevue Community College transfer pitched five shutout innings against the Chargers and averaged one strikeout per frame.

“Tristan has to live and die with that split,” Penders said. “Sometimes he’s going to get behind batters, and his fastball plays up because it might just be 86 to 88, but it plays off of that split really well. 
That first inning was a little dicey. He made his own trouble, but he wound up finding a way to get out of it. He just dodged enough barrels today.”

Offensively, it was all UConn for much of the contest. Cam Righi struck first, driving a hard single to right field in the second inning to score Gabriel Tirado. Tirado reached after shooting a double down the left field line.

An inning later, Jackson Marshall took the team lead in home runs when he barrelled one to dead center field. Sending in over 400 feet, the two-run laser bounced off the nose of the Husky halfway up the batter’s eye in center field.

The score would sit at 3-0 for three more innings until Chris Polemeni cracked a hard single to center field, plating Menzel after his triple to make it 4-0. 

The floodgates opened in the eighth. Maddix Dalena was hit by a pitch and advanced to third on a double from Nater Wachter. Gabriel Tirado drove in the first run of the inning on a sac fly to right. Righi, the next batter, hit a double to the wall in right center for another run and the first double of his collegiate career. The double secured the second multi-RBI game in just his sixth career appearance.

Righi advanced to second after Chase Taylor grounded out, scoring on a balk a batter later. Rob Rispoli smashed a triple over Manson’s outstretched glove and later scored on Menzel’s inside-the-park home run.

Four RBIs singles from the Chargers in the top of the ninth saw them bring the score to a slightly less lopsided five-run deficit. Each of Aedan Forde, Nick Ungania, Shaun Callahan, and Casey Cerruto drove a run in.

Still, it was too little, too late for New Haven as Menzel and Co. were too much for the Chargers’ pitching staff to handle.

After just a one-game homestead, the Huskies will be back on the road this weekend. They will travel to Virginia to take on Old Dominion University in a three-game series starting Friday at 3 p.m. The first two games will stream live on ESPN+.