UConn Football links

And Here’s Mr. Smallwood [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Another Commitment [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Osiecki and Kinnard True Frosh For ’10 Or Reddies ’09? [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Will 2010 Class Be Bigger Or Smaller Than 2009? [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

UConn gets first commitment for 2010 [Big East Blog – ESPN.com]

UConn Football Receives First Commitment For 2010 [Hartford Courant]

Connecticut Huskies… [The Playmakers]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Parliament-Hashadelic [David Borges – New Haven Register]

UConn Reunion In Detroit: Pistons Add Gordon, Villanueva [Hartford Courant]

Oriakhi knows what’s in Storrs for big men [New Haven Register]

Other UConn related links

Six Women’s Ice Hockey Players Set to Join Huskies [UConnHuskies.com]

After seeing a 10-1 lead erased last night, the Boston Red Sox found themselves trailing 5-1 to the Baltimore Orioles in the 9th inning of today’s tilt. By the end of the 9th inning, the game was tied at 5.

Julio Lugo singled in the game-winner in the 11th and Jonathan Papelbon pitched a perfect 11th inning to become the Red Sox all-time saves leader in a 6-5 win in front of 29,391 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Jim Johnson took over for Orioles starter Brad Bergesen in the 9th and got things going by walking Dustin Pedroia. Kevin Youkilis followed with an opposite field blast to cut the deficit to 5-3 and chase Johnson from the game. O’s closer George Sherrill came on and struck out David Ortiz and Jason Bay (platinum sombrero for him with 5 K’s on the day).

Jacoby Ellsbury kept the inning alive with a single. Sherrill then got a little wild as he loaded the bases up with walks to Jeff Bailey and Jason Varitek. Julio Lugo pinch-ran for Varitek and Rocco Baldelli pinch-hit for Nick Green. Baldelli delivered as his single scored Ellsbury and Bailey to knot the game at 5.

Sherrill reloaded the bases with a walk to J.D. Drew and gave way to Danys Baez. He got Pedroia to foul out to send the game to extra innings.

In the 11th, Ellsbury led off with a double and went to third on fly ball to right by Bailey. With the infield in, Lugo got a ball into the outfield scoring Ellsbury to give the Red Sox a 6-5 lead.

Papelbon came out in the bottom half of the 11th and sent the O’s down in order to for his 20th save this  season and 133rd overall in a Red Sox uniform to break Bob Stanley’s mark of 132.

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After watching their bullpen implode last night, the Boston Red Sox look to put it behind them in the rubber game with the Baltimore Orioles this afternoon.

The game this afternoon will start at 1:35 PM EDT and will be televised in the Red Sox television market on NESN. If you live in the Orioles market, you can catch the game on MASN. And if the television isn’t your cup of tea, you can catch the game on one of the many affiliates of the Red Sox Radio Network.

Terry Francona will need his ace Josh Beckett to eat up some innings this afternoon after last night’s bullpen meltdown. Beckett has faced the O’s once this season back on April 18th where he allowed three runs in six innings to pick up the win. He has faced the Orioles ten times in his career and is 5-2 with 3.80 ERA. He’s had some success as well at Camden Yards as he is 4-1 with a 2.98 ERA in six starts.

Brad Bergesen made his big league debut for the Orioles back on April 21st where he picked up the win against the Texas Rangers. He’s made a total of thirteen starts on the season and is 5-2 with a 3.76 ERA. Bergesen is 5-1 with a 3.10 in eight starts at Camden Yards. He’s never faced the Red Sox in his career.

With just 1½ days left in the AL All-Star voting, Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia need our help Red Sox Nation. Youk currently leads Mark Teixeira by 35,000 votes while Pedroia is just 6,830 votes behind Ian Kinsler. Let’s help them out and get them to the All-Star Game. Vote Red Sox.

And because I don’t want to see your National League votes wasted, please help out Ryan Zimmerman (3B) and Adam Dunn (OF) of the Washington Nationals. My friend Kristen would really appreciate it if you did that.

Chat during today’s Red Sox game [Extra Bases]

Lowrie back to Boston [Extra Bases]

Highlights of Terry Francona’s 7/1 interview with Dale & Holley [Full Count]

Bullpen out to bounce back after rough night [RedSox.com]

Rick Burleson Interview Part One [Fenway West]

Here are the lineups for this afternoon’s game:

47-30		35-42
1. J.D. Drew	RF	1. Brian Roberts	2B
2. Dustin Pedroia	2B	2. Felix Pie	CF
3. Kevin Youkilis	3B	3. Nick Markakis	RF
4. Jason Bay	LF	4. Aubrey Huff	1B
5. David Ortiz	DH	5. Luke Scott	DH
6. Jacoby Ellsbury	CF	6. Nolan Reimold	LF
7. Mark Kotsay	1B	7. Ty Wigginton	3B
8. Jason Varitek	C	8. Gregg Zaun	C
9. Nick Green	SS	9. Robert Andino	SS
Josh Beckett	SP	Brad Bergesen	SP

And here is how the hitters have fared against this afternoon’s starting pitchers. No one on the Red Sox has faced Bergesen.

The Team USA Women’s World University Games Team had no problems today in Belgrade, Serbia as they opened up the World University Games with an 115-30 shellacking of France.

Team USA was led by UConn Huskies senior center Tina Charles who led five players in double figures with 18 points and added 6 rebounds. Her UConn teammate Tiffany Hayes chipped in with 15 points, 2 assists and a blocked shot.

Maya Moore didn’t play in the game due to a sore knee and will be reevaluated today.

Here are some quotes from the UConn contingent courtesy of USA Basketball:

Tina Charles:

On the French team:
They kept pushing, kept going hard, regardless of what they score was. They kept running and trying to go to the boards, trying to score.

How difficult is it to stay focused when you’re up by so much?
It’s not hard at all. With us being collegiate athletes and being in situations like that, I’m sure all of us have been in a similar situation. We’re able to keep our focus and it helped us a long way.

Was there something you were trying to work on during the game?
Our press. We pressed up in the back court a lot. We were also trying to push the ball in transition and things like that.

Tiffany Hayes:

On today’s game:
Basically we had to keep a level head, even though we blew the game out of the water. We just had to make sure that we didn’t slow down. We were working on our plays and keeping the tempo up. We just had to work on that.

What did coach talk to you about at halftime?
She told us that we didn’t need to slack up, that we were winning the battle of the boards, which is one of our goals. We need to keep playing hard, even though it’s hard to do that when you’re up by so much.

What did you think about your first international game?
It was fun. It was pretty good. We came together as a team and played pretty well with each other. I was really happy to see that all of us were getting hyped with each other when we did something well, running to help each other up, little things like that. It makes me really happy, I was really glad to see that.

USA Women Cruise To Easy 115-30 Win Over France To Open 2009 World University Games Play [USA Basketball]

The Boston Red Sox had a 9-1 lead going into the bottom of the 5th when the skies opened up causing a rain delay of an hour and eleven minutes. Nearly two hours later, the Baltimore Orioles were walking off the field with an 11-10 win.

John Smoltz started the game out for the Red Sox and was staked to an early lead. That lead continue to grow before the rain delay with Smoltz looking sharp out on the mound. He had more confidence in his fastball and looked the guy the Red Sox were looking for when they signed him. Although they blew the game, he was not the pitcher of record as he left after the delay.

Justin Masterson took over for him and was dealing for the next two innings. He struck out four-of-six batters he faced. Then it looked he ran into the The Great Wall of China as he was charged with five runs. Hideki Okajima wasn’t any better as he didn’t record an out in the 8th inning, allowing four runs.

Takashi Saito wasn’t any better as he was charged with the winning run that came when Jonathan Papelbon blew the save.

The Red Sox bullpen has been one of the best, if not the best in all of baseball all season long so maybe they were due for a night like this. If it does continue, then of course there is cause for concern. But I don’t think that will happen.

The Red Sox are resilient bunch, especially under Terry Francona. While blogs and the media will talk about this game today, I’m pretty dang sure the Red Sox will already have forgotten what happened.

And btw, I’m pretty sure Josh Beckett is going to be one pissed off dude this afternoon. It’s not like he needs any more motivation.

With just under two days left in the AL All-Star voting, Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia need our help Red Sox Nation. Youk currently leads Mark Teixeira by 35,000 votes while Pedroia is just 6,830 votes behind Ian Kinsler. Let’s help them out and get them to the All-Star Game. Vote Red Sox.

And because I don’t want to see your National League votes wasted, please help out Ryan Zimmerman (3B) and Adam Dunn (OF) of the Washington Nationals. My friend Kristen would really appreciate it if you did that.

Continue reading →

UConn Football links

Depth And Talent Stack Up To ’08? Progress Coming? [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Meet Darius Smith [UConn Huskies Basketball]

Kolbe Cathedral hires ex-UConn great Smith as coach [Connecticut Post]

Kolbe Cathedral hires Smith as boys’ hoops coach [New Haven Register]

It’s never too early for college hoops [NESN.com]

Other UConn related links

Baseball: Springer Tagged as Baseball America Freshman All-American [UConnHuskies.com]

Baseball: Nemeth to Play in Annual Red Sox Draft Class Showcase [UConnHuskies.com]

On the Cape with UConn’s Mike Olt [Shore Line Times]

It was a tale of two different games. There was the game in which the Boston Red Sox were winning 9-1 in the 5th inning.

Then the heavens opened up and brought on a rain delay. After a rain delay of one hour and eleven minutes and two good innings from Justin Masterson, the game took a dramatic turn for the worse.

Trailing 10-1 in the 7th inning, the Baltimore Orioles rallied for ten unanswered runs in the 7th and 8th innings to beat the Red Sox 11-10 in front of 31,969 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Tuesday night.

The Red Sox fall to 47-30 and see their lead shrink to 2.5 games in the AL East as the Yankees won. The Orioles improve to 35-42.

The Red Sox bullpen, which is the best if not of the best in baseball, was absolutely horrible.

After Masterson struck out four-of-six batters he faced in the 5th and 6th inning, he couldn’t buy an out in the 7th. He was charged with five runs on five hits. Manny Delcarmen went 2/3 of an inning, allowing a hit.

Hideki Okajima finished off the 7th and then got light up like the Christmas tree at Rockerfeller Center in December. He didn’t retire anyone in the 8th as he allowed four runs on five hits. Takashi Saito didn’t have any luck either as he was charged with the winning run that came off of a hit off of Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon.

By the way, John Smoltz pitched in the good part of the game for the Red Sox. It was vintage Smoltz as he allowed a run on three hits and a walk while striking out two. It’s just a shame the rain came as he throwing well enough to get a win.

Rich Hill’s woes continued at Camden Yards as he was also lit up like fireworks on the 4th of July. He went 3 1/3 innings allowing nine runs (seven earned) on nine hits and three walks while striking out three.

The Orioles bullpen allowed one run on seven hits over the final 5 2/3 innings.

Kevin Youkilis fell a triple short of the cycle, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two-run homer. Jacoby Ellsbury also had three hits and two RBIs including a solo home run. Jeff Bailey, who replaced Mike Lowell on the roster, also had three hits.

Dustin Pedroia continues to rake from the No. 2 spot in the lineup as he had two hits and three RBIs. Julio Lugo and David Ortiz also had two hits each with Big Papi driving in a run. Jason Varitek had the other RBI for the visiting nine.

The Red Sox are a resilient bunch and there’s no doubt in my mind that they will put this loss behind them.

It’s a quick turnaround as it’s afternoon baseball at Camden Yards on Wednesday afternoon. Terry Francona will look to Josh Beckett to eat some innings up and get the Red Sox back on the winning track. He’ll be opposed by rookie Brad Bergesen.

Boston Red Sox @ Baltimore Orioles 6.30.09 box score