Polemeni helps UConn clinch at least share of sixth-straight Big East title

Nater Wachter also added an RBI single in the fourth to drive in Peyton Jemison with an unearned run. After reaching on an error by Whooley, Jemison swiped second and advanced to third on a wild pitch before coming around to score.

Making the final regular season start of a year which will likely culminate in a Big East Pitcher of the Year award, Cayden Suchy saved some of his best for last.

The left-hander made that clear right out of the gate, retiring the first nine Wildcats batters he faced.

While his three strikeouts on the evening weren’t quite enough to retake the conference lead from teammate Charlie West (106 Ks), 104 punchouts on the year is nothing to snuff at.

What will really remain in the heads of Big East coaches when they go to vote is the six scoreless innings he worked to improve his record to 5-2 and lower his season ERA to 2.61.

Frank Spirito IV also gave the Huskies two scoreless innings with a pair of punchouts in his best outing of the season, while Austin Trumpour tossed a scoreless ninth to bring his ERA down to 2.20.

At the plate, Jackson Marshall extended his on-base streak to 44 games and got on three times.

“I love watching him hit,” UConn head coach Jim Penders said. “ I mean, he’s not a power guy. People think, ‘oh, he’s a power hitter.’ Yeah, he is a hitter first and foremost, with power, and it’s fun to watch.

Anthony Belisario was another offensive standout, posting his second-straight multi-hit performance and slugging his second double of the weekend. The center fielder also stole a base.

The Huskies are now the only team left in the Big East that control their own destiny in the conference standings. They are also the only team who can win it outright.

It’s as simple as this: if the Huskies beat Villanova on Saturday, UConn will sit alone on top of the Big East regular season mountain.

If they lose, things become a little more complicated.

Creighton (29-23, 13-7 Big East) is officially out of the way after a 3-2 nail-biter loss to Xavier (26-28, 14-6 Big East). That leaves the Musketeers and St. John’s (29-24, 14-6 Big East), who topped Butler 7-2 today to even that series, as the only two teams who can still tie the Huskies.

If both teams lose, the Huskies still win the league outright. If UConn loses and one or both teams win, they will share the conference crown. The Huskies hold the tie breaker over Xavier for the Big East Championship tournament but not St. John’s, meaning that the only way that UConn isn’t the one-seed is if the Red Storm tie for first.

Still, the Huskies will look to make it easy by going for the sweep against Villanova on Saturday at 1:05 p.m. at Elliot Ballpark on Senior Day. The game will stream live on ESPN+.

“Certainly, we want to win it outright tomorrow, and we want to have a winning record at Elliot Ballpark. We can accomplish both tomorrow,” Penders said. “But, you know, it is worth celebrating it for 10, 15 minutes, because we hadn’t won one of these things until 2011. That was the first time we did it. We got some of those guys in the stands tonight.”