Jim Penders earns 800th career win with 4-3 victory over ETSU

The ETSU Buccaneers take on the UConn Huskies in a college softball game at Elliot Ballpark in Storrs, CT on Sunday, May 3, 2026. | Ian Bethune - The UConn Blog

UConn head coach Jim Penders earned his 800th career win as UConn (27-22) salvaged its series against East Tennessee State University (29-16) with a 4-3 win on Sunday at Elliot Ballpark.

For the second day in a row, Jackson Marshall came up to the plate with the Huskies trailing and the bases juiced. This time, he didn’t miss his pitch. The star first baseman smacked a sixth inning grand slam to left field to overcome a two-run deficit with one swing. The slam was Marshall’s second of the season and kept UConn from being swept at home for the first time in the history of Elliot Ballpark.

That game-changing long ball was set up after the Huskies got three straight runners on against starter Cooper Jones to open the inning. Chase Taylor led off the inning with a walk before Chris Cancel singled into left on the first pitch of his at bat. Cam Righi picked up hard-earned full count walk after getting ahead 3-0 loaded the bases.

The rough start of the inning led to Thomas Costarelli entering the game in relief for ETSU. Marshall greeted him by sending his first pitch over the wall. Cody Carwile eventually had to come in to stop the bleeding as the Bucs were forced to burn two bullpen arms in the same inning.

While Marshall’s grand slam pushed across the Huskies’ only four runs on the day, the pitching staff made sure that would be enough for the victory.

UConn starter Oliver Pudvar turned in his fourth-straight quality start. Though he allowed his first earned run in 23.1 innings in the first — a stretch dating back to the end of his start against Creighton on April 4 — Pudvar settled in after allowing a pair of homers in the early innings.

Henry Ferguson, the second batter of the contest, lifted Pudvar’s sixth pitch the opposite way for a solo homer over the right field wall. That made it the third straight day in which the shortstop went yard against UConn, giving him a long ball in each game of the series.

Joey Little followed up Ferguson’s home run with one of his own an inning later to lead off the second, barely clearing the right field wall and a jumping Nater Wachter to give the Bucs a 2-0 lead.