The Bears took their home field in the sun-drenched Murray Stadium yesterday against No. 25 Connecticut Huskies and left the diamond with a 15-3 loss.
"They are the 25th in the country for a reason," said Head Coach Marek Drabinski. "They are the best team we've played up north. They are athletic, physical and can run. We can't give up four or five outs per inning."
Brown squandered many opportunities throughout the game, leaving 11 runners on base and hitting into three double plays.
The offensive bright spots for the Bears were Mike DiBiase '12, who was 4-5, Pete Greskoff '11, 2-3, and Cody Slaughter '13, 2-4.
UConn — who came into the game second place in the Big East Conference — got on the board early with three runs in the top of the first inning on a three run home run by Mike Olt '11. The home run came one pitch after pitcher Matt Boylan just missed low with a potential strike three.
UConn added another three runs in the top of the second inning, and Brown went into the bottom of the second inning down, 6-0.
In the bottom of the second, Greskoff led off with a single, and Ryan Zrenda '11 followed with a double. Both Bears scored later in the inning on a sacrifice fly by Josh Feit '11 and an RBI single by Slaughter. But UConn escaped without further damage, and the Bears trailed, 6-2, after two innings.
The Bears threatened in the bottom of the third inning when they loaded the bases with no outs. But a pop-out and a slick double play turned by the Huskies kept Brown off the board.
Brown once again put together a potential rally in the bottom of the fourth. Chris Tanabe '10 singled, then stole second base and scored on an RBI single by Graham Tyler '12.
However, two batters later, the rally was cut short when Tyler was thrown out at home plate as he tried to score on single by Matt Colantonio '11.
UConn put the game out of reach with four more runs in the top of the fifth. Three errors committed to the Bears led to the Huskies runs.
UConn scored another four runs in the top of the sixth inning to go ahead 15-3, the final score.
Despite falling to 9-20 on the season, the Bears are still in good shape for an Ivy League title. They lead the Rolfe Division of the Ivy League with a 6-2 league record.
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