Basketball-centric UConn proving it's also a baseball school

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — UConn baseball coach Jim Penders doesn't mind working at a school where it's still snowing when the season starts and fans are more concerned about 3-pointers than 3-run homers.

Penders, the nephew of former college hoops coach Tom Penders, credits Connecticut's basketball programs and their combined 15 national titles, with creating an athletics culture that has helped him recruit top players to Storrs and convince officials to build his team's just opened state-of-the art Elliot Ballpark, which comes complete with an artificial turf field and heated benches.

“I’ve got a basketball in my office to remind me that, hey you might not be here if it wasn’t for this bigger, orange ball,” said Penders, who is in his 18th season at Connecticut, his alma mater. “Yes, UConn is a basketball school, but that doesn't mean it can't be a baseball school too.”

This past Saturday, the last day of the regular season, the Huskies (30-16), won the Big East regular-season title, a top seed in this week’s conference tournament and a likely spot in the NCAA tournament for the 22nd time overall and the seventh during Penders' career.

They had to win 26 of their last 32 games to do that, including a four-game sweep of Seton Hall on the final weekend that vaulted them from third place to first.

Sophomore Kyler Fedko whose three-run homer in the last game brought his average above .400 and cemented the title-clinching 10-2 win, said it takes a certain toughness to play baseball at UConn.

“Cold weather, snow on the ground, it doesn’t get nice until literally this week,” he said. “It was like 50 degrees three weeks ago in May. This is home."

The school was a baseball power decades ago, going to five College World Series between 1957 and 1979. Penders' father and his uncle...