Tough nailbiting win for the UConn Huskies football team last night as the defense held strong at the end of the game. And as you would expect the night after a game, there are some links from the assembled local media at the game.

Chip Malafronte from the New Haven Register has his pregame notes which includes him getting flipped the bird by a 65-year old woman. You can also catch Chip’s UConn football postgame notes here.

Neill Ostrout of the Connecticut Post also has some pregame notes as well. He has also has some UConn football postgame names.

John Silver of the Journal Inquirer has two sets of UConn football postgame notes

Desmond Connor of the Hartford Courant has a look at what right and what went wrong last night for UConn.

The success of Donald Brown can be attributed to the UConn Huskies front line.

The Huskies once again struggled against a spread offense.

Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant says that game was a lot of fun last night.

The UConn men’s soccer team opened up Big East play with an 1-0 win over Louisville.

The UConn women’s soccer team also opened up Big East play with an 1-0 win over Providence.

Paul Byrd and Jason Varitek went to the park to play catch on Thursday in Toronto.

The Boston Red Sox head into this afternoon’s game having a chance to clinch a spot in the playoffs. Of course for that to happen they need to win and they need the Twins and Yankees to lose. That’s right folks, the Red Sox magic number is down to 2 games to make the playoffs. While a playoff berth is all but certain, the race for the AL East is still up for grabs.

They did their part last night to keep pace with the Rays as they were able to overcome their arch enemy in A.J. Burnett. They got solid pitching from Paul Byrd who kept them in the game and some timely hitting against Burnett helped them to the win.

In the end it became a battle of bullpens and this battle was won by the Red Sox bullpen as they didn’t allow a run in the final 3 innings of the game. The Red Sox got to the Jays bullpen in the 8th inning for the eventual winning run.

Now we all know how valuable Jason Varitek is and has been to the Red Sox. With the Red Sox off on Thursday and Byrd liking to throw the day before his starts, they went to a park to throw on the off day.

“Twice he has brought back to the hotel a bunch of his gear, and walked through the lobby in Boston Red Sox shorts and shirt and socks and turf shoes, and he has walked through the city with me, down the street, and played catch in a park,” Byrd said of Varitek. “That our starting catcher is ready to go with his catcher’s mitt, that’s just the sign of how much he cares.”

“It doesn’t get any more grunge work than that.”

Trust me folks, you aren’t going to see anyone like that except with Varitek. As Byrd says at the end of the article, that’s why he’s our captain.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s worst fear is the Red Sox winning the wild card.

The Blue Jays were dealt a blow for 2009 when they found out Shaun Marcum will need Tommy John surgery.

Mike Lowell will take at least the weekend off after a conference call about his ailing hip.

The Blue Jays don’t want A.J. Burnett to leave after this season.

Bartolo Colon has decided he doesn’t want to pitch for the Red Sox anymore this season and has been suspended without pay.

Michael Berger of WEEI updates his Red Sox in one-run games post.

If you missed Dennis Eckersley ripping on Colon during the pregame show, I have the video for you.

The Boston Red Sox signed a two-year Player Development Contract with the Salem Avalanche.

For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.

And if you must see what the enemy papers are saying, head over to the Toronto Sun, Toronto Star and Globe and Mail websites.

One of the more enjoyable things besides looking at Amalie Benjamin and Heidi Watney during the NESN pregame show is when Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley is on. He doesn’t care who he rips on and shows us why he is one of the best in the business.

Last night, he took his shots at Bartolo Colon who thought that pitching out of the bullpen for the Boston Red Sox wasn’t good enough and decided to stay in the Dominican Republic after returning there for some personal business.

The Red Sox have since suspended Colon without pay and as Eck said in the piece, you definitely won’t see the Red Sox in the mix for his services in the offseason.

Donald Brown was once again the man for the UConn Huskies as he rushed for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns to help them rally for a 31-28 over a surprisingly good Baylor Bears team in front of 38,870 at Rentschler Field. The win moves the Huskies to 4-0 for the second straight year.

Despite stacking the line, the Bears really had no answer for Brown and the UConn rushing game. The Huskies rushed for 225 yards, getting 73 yards and 2 rushing touchdowns from quarterback Tyler Lorenzen.

Lorenzen definitely wasn’t as good as he was last week passing the ball as he threw two interceptions with both of them coming in Baylor territory, including one in the end zone in the 1st quarter after the Huskies marched down the field. His running though kept the Huskies in the game. You can definitely give a lot of credit again to the offensive line for helping the Huskies to the 225 yards.

UConn did their best to stop Baylor true freshman QB sensation Robert Griffin from the running the ball as they held him to 46 yards on 23 carries and a touchdown. However though, Griffin made the UConn defense look like swiss cheese at times with his arm as he threw for 208 yards and 3 touchdowns.

The Huskies had to overcome some adversity on a few bad calls from the referees. The big one came on a Dahna Deleston interception that was called back when Darius Butler was called for a very questionable roughing the passer call. When Griffin released the ball, it was only 3/10 of a second to when Butler hit him.

I will definitely say that I was impressed by the way Griffin played the game. He didn’t look like a true freshman to me and showed a lot of moxie when he got up from 2 different Butler hard hits. If I was a Baylor fan, I’d be very happy for the future with the young kid at quarterback.

After the game Randy Edsall was pleased to walkoff the field with a win. I am sure he’s not happy with some of the calls by the referees and his defense allowing all those passing yards over the middle. The Huskies will need to play much better then they did tonight to beat Louisville in their first Big East game next week.

Scoring:

1st quarter

BAY – Robert Griffin 16-yard pass to Justin Akers (Ben Parks PAT) – Baylor 7 UConn 0

2nd quarter

CON – Tyler Lorenzen 7-yard run – (Tony Ciaravino PAT) – UConn 7 Baylor 7

BAY – Griffin 14-yard pass to Akers (Parks PAT) – Baylor 14 UConn 7

Donald Brown scores one of his 2 touchdowns on the night.

CON – Donald Brown 1-yard run – Ciaravino PAT) – UConn 14 Baylor 14

3rd quarter

CON – Ciaravino 39-yard FG – UConn 17 Baylor 14

BAY – Griffin 2-yard run (Parks PAT) – Baylor 21 UConn 17

CON – Lorenzen 34-yard run – (Ciaravino PAT) – UConn 24 Baylor 21

4th quarter

BAY – Griffin 19-yard pass to Kendall Wright (Parks PAT) – Baylor 28 UConn 24

CON – Brown 3-yard run (Ciaravino PAT) – UConn 31 Baylor 28

Offensive Player of the Game:

I’m going with co-players of the game. Baylor QB Robert Griffin was 14-of-25 for 208 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also rushed 23 times for 46 yards with a touchdown. Donald Brown had 34 carries for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns for the Huskies.

Defensive Player of the Game:

I’m going with co-players of the game here as well. UConn linebackers Scott Lutrus and Greg Lloyd each had 10 tackles and it really seemed like they were involved in every play. Lloyd had 5 solo tackles and Lutrus had 3.

Turning Point(s) of the Game:

1. The questionable roughing the passer call on Butler led to Griffin’s third touchdown pass of the evening.

2. A questionable spot on a sack of Griffin in the end zone. The Huskies defense held strong and forced them into a punt and an interference call on Baylor of the punt returner gave the Huskies the ball at Baylor’s 29 which set up the winning drive for the Huskies.

Continue reading →

Jason Varitek’s RBI fielder’s choice in the 8th inning was the difference as the Boston Red Sox held off the Toronto Blue Jays to win 4-3 in front of 34,982 at Rogers Centre.

The win for the Red Sox pushes their lead to 7.5 games in the wild card over the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees. It also keeps the Red Sox 1.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for 1st place in the AL East as they killed the Twins tonight.

Paul Byrd gave the Red Sox 6 decent innings tonight.

Paul Byrd started for the Red Sox and gave them a chance to win. He went 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits and a walk while fanning 2. Javier Lopez worked 2/3 of an inning, walking 1 and striking out 1. Manny Delcarmen picked up the win with a perfect inning. Hideki Okajima needed just 4 pitches in his 1/3 of an inning. Jonathan Papelbon worked the 9th for his 39th save.

Kevin Youkilis went 2-for-4 with an RBI and Jed Lowrie also had 2 hits for the Red Sox. Sean Casey knocked in 2 runs with his only hit. Mark Kotsay ended an 0-for-16 streak with a single.

After leaving Marcos Scutaro stranded at second in the 1st, Byrd got the first two outs of the 2nd. He then gave up back-to-back-to-back doubles to Scott Rolen, Gregg Zaun and Travis Snider that scored 2 runs to put the Jays up 2-0. Byrd then walked Joe Inglett but got Scutaro to fly out.

Despite numerous chances through the first 4 innings, the Red Sox couldn’t push any runs across the plate against their nemesis A.J. Burnett. That all changed in the 5th inning.

Continue reading →

Well look who it is. It’s the Toronto Blue Jays again. If it seems like the Red Sox have only been playing the Jays and Tampa Rays the past two weeks, that’s because they have been. Since September 8th, the Red Sox have played the Rays for 3 games, Jays for 4 games, the Rays for another 3 games and they close out with the Jays for another 3 games.

And wouldn’t you know it, Paul Byrd is on the bump for the Red Sox tonight making his 7th start for them and 4th overall against the Blue Jays as a member of the Red Sox. This will be the second time this season that he had made at least two straight starts against the Jays. He made one with Cleveland Indians, then took on the Jays in his 1st Red Sox start and followed that up with his third straight start against them. He also faced the Jays his last time out where he was pounded for 10 hits and 5 runs in 5 innings. If the pattern holds true, he’s due for a win this time. In those 4 starts, he is 2-2 with a 4.94 ERA. In his career at Rogers Centre, he is 2-3 with a 3.93 ERA and is 5-5 with 3.80 ERA lifetime against the Jays.

Cito Gaston counters with A.J. Burnett who has absolutely owned the Red Sox in his career. Burnett is 5-0 with a 2.37 ERA and was on the winning end of Byrd’s last start. He is 2-0 in 3 starts this season against the Red Sox.

Baseball America is starting to release it’s top prospects list for each league and the Red Sox had two players from the GCL Red Sox to make the list and 3 from the Lowell Spinners so far.

And in case you missed the news, the Red Sox have signed a two-year PDC with the Salem Avalanche.

Jason Bay is back with the Red Sox after leaving the team to be with his wife for the birth of their daughter.

Bartolo Colon has been put on the restricted list because he’s not happy with the role the Red Sox have for him for the rest of the season.

Mike Lowell won’t play this weekend but hopes to return for a few games next week.

Starting lineups for tonight’s game as well as the batter/pitcher matchups are after the jump.

Continue reading →

I just caught this over at John Altavilla’s blog over at the Hartford Courant that UConn Huskies women’s basketball recruit Kelsey Bone of Texas has taken UConn off of her list of schools.

Kim Williams, the mother of Kelsey Bone, the high school senior center from Texas and one of the nation’s Top 5 recruits for the Class of 2009, just confirmed for me that her daugher is no longer considering UConn.

Williams said the most recent list compiled by the recruiting service Blue Star – Illinois, Texas A&M, South Carolina, Texas and Tennessee – is accurate.