Postgame Quotes

GAINESVILLE, Fla.  - The No. 10 ranked UConn baseball team (44-16) eliminated Florida A&M (29-30), 9-6, from the NCAA Gainesville Regional on Saturday afternoon at Condron Family Ballpark. 

The victory was the 700th career win for UConn head coach Jim Penders.

Tied 5-5 in the top of the eighth inning, Korey Morton led off the eighth inning with a walk and stole second base with no outs. David Smith advanced Morton to third on a ground out to first.

Paul Tammaro followed with a safety squeeze to plate Morton and give UConn a 6-5 lead. After a Freeberger two-out single, Ben Huber unloaded on a two-run home run, his 17th of the season, to give the Huskies their largest lead of the day at 8-5. 

Devin Kirby earned his seventh victory of the year out of the bullpen with 4.0 strong innings of work. 

Morton gave UConn a key insurance run with a safety squeeze in the ninth inning to make it 9-6 Huskies. 

Justin Willis collected his 28th career save with a perfect ninth inning.

UConn will play the loser of tonight's Florida/Texas Tech matchup at noon on Sunday on ESPN+

Game Notes

• UConn has won 18 games in the NCAA Tournament since 2010. The Huskies have won at least a game in the NCAAs in nine-straight tournament appearaances. The most consecutive years in program history. 
• Since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1999, the Huskies are 12-8 in NCAA Tournament elimination games.
• Dominic Freeberger collected his team-leading 30th multi-hit game
• Ben Huber's 17 home runs are the most for a Husky since Joe DeRoche Duffin hit 17 home runs in 2016. 
• David Smith scored his 70th run of the season on Saturday. He is the second Husky in program history to score 70 runs in a season. (George Springer, 84 runs in 2010 and 75 runs in 2011).
• In just two seasons in Storrs, Ben Huber is tied for eighth in program history with 28 home runs and is 11th with 132 runs batted in.