UConn baseball drops second straight series at home after loss to ETSU

UConn’s Cayden Suchy didn’t get any help from his offense or defense in the loss. | Ian Bethune/The UConn Blog

Heading into the 2026 season, the UConn Huskies hadn’t lost a home weekend series in their first five years at Elliot Ballpark. On Saturday afternoon, the Huskies (26-22) fell to East Tennessee State University (29-15), 6-1, to drop their second-straight homestand.

Losing their last weekend home series to Big East rival St. John’s two weeks ago, the Huskies were looking to rebound in their return to Storrs against the Bucs but did not make things easy on themselves or starter Cayden Suchy.

The Huskies’ ace got through a clean first inning but ran into some trouble in the second. Buccaneers four-hole hitter Jamie Palmese led off the second with a single but was thrown out trying to steal second. However, the next two batters also reached on a walk and a single. The base hit from Joey Little would have left runners on the corners had it not been for a throwing error from Jackson Marshall.

Cutting off the outlet throw from left center, shortstop Rob Rispoli noticed Little taking a big turn around first and pump faked him back to the bag. Instead of eating the throw and leaving runners on the corners with two outs, Rispoli fired low towards first after a few fakes. Marshall couldn’t adjust to the throw in time and the ball bounced off Little, rolling towards the ETSU dugout and allowing Tyler Fetterman to score from first easily. The error gave the Buccaneers their first run of the day, unearned.

The Bucs also had some loud contact off Suchy. After a mound visit from coach Joshua McDonald in the third inning, Suchy saw his next pitch get barreled off the top of the wall in right center by Tristan Curless, scoring Nate Conner after a double of his own earlier in the inning.

Despite the early damage, Suchy settled in and showed why he is a favorite for Big East Pitcher of the Year. The left-hander delivered his fifth quality start in his last six outings after allowing just two earned runs on seven innings pitched and 104 pitches thrown. With his seven punchouts on the day, the sophomore now sits just two strikeouts away from being the first to 100 in the Big East this season and remains in the top 10 nationally.

“He fights, we just don’t have enough fight in our lineup,” UConn Head Coach Jim Penders said in a postgame interview with the UConn Sports Network. “We don’t fight back when we get hit in the mouth. We don’t come back on teams.”