Huskies to Host Seattle U in Three-Game Set

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SEATTLE -- Fresh off of a midweek victory over Portland, the Washington Huskies welcome the Seattle Redhawks to Husky Ballpark for a three-game series. The Huskies will be playing their third straight home series, while the Redhawks have played all 10 of their games on the road. Seattle U has Pac-12 familiarity this season, as they most-recently dropped a three-game set to Washington State, after splitting a four-game series with Oregon.  

Series Schedule
UW and Seattle U were originally scheduled to play a three-team event with Washington State, with the teams playing on another twice over three days. Due to COVID-19 protocol developments, the Cougars had to drop out. The Redhawks will now visit Husky Ballpark for a standard three-game series.

Scouting the Opposition 

The Redhawks will make the short drive up from Capitol Hill to face UW for the first time in a three-game series. While the two programs have played each other 30 times, with the Huskies leading 20-10, they have all been standalone games. The last time they met was in 2019, when UW won both contests by scores of 6-1 and 6-3.

Donny Harrel leads Seattle U in his 12th year in charge of the program. The baseball team was reborn in 2010 after last playing in 1979 and Harrel has been the head coach ever since. 

The Redhawks have already played seven games against Pac-12 competition this season. After winning two-of-three against Portland to open the year, they split a four-game set with Oregon that saw them win the final two games of the series by scores of 4-2 and 8-4. Their most recent action was last weekend at Washington State, where they lost the first two games of the series before taking the third and final game 6-2.

Offensively, Seattle U is led by Julian Kodama (.308 AVG, 8 RBI) and Gavin Rork (.394 AVG, 7-7 SB). Morgan White has been their most productive starter, with a 0.61 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in three starts.
 

Husky Notes

Starting Pitching Prowess: UW continues to receive quality outings from its starting pitchers. Logan Gerling delivered a strong performance as the Friday night starter against Loyola Marymount, going 4.2 innings, striking out seven and allowing just one run. Jack Enger improved his record to 2-0 with another dominant outing against LMU last Saturday and now boasts an ERA of 0.66 and a 0.80 WHIP. Since moving to starter from the bullpen, Adam Bloebaum has thrown 10 innings, allowed just two runs and struck out 16 batters. 

Bullpen Quality: Returning a bulk of last year's dominant bullpen, the Huskies have found similar spurts of dominance in 2021. On Tuesday night against Portland, UW relievers combined to throw 6.2 scoreless innings to secure the win. Gabe Smith led the effort, throwing 3.1 scoreless innings to help bridge the gap to the back of the bullpen. Davis Delorefice earned his first save of the season by getting the last four outs of the game, three of which were strikeouts. Husky relievers have an active streak of 10.2 scoreless innings. In the UTRGV series two weeks ago, relievers combined for a stretch of 12 straight scoreless innings. Transfers Stefan Raeth and Stu Flesland III have combined to throw 13.1 scoreless innings in 11 combined appearances. Additionally, Dylan Lamb has shown the ability to come in and get outs, while Colton Charnholm has emerged as a quality lefty arm.

Braiden Ward Keeps Stealing:  Braiden Ward cracked the Huskies' top-five list for career stolen bases last season and currently sits in fourth-place all time with 65 swipes. Up next for Ward is Kevin Stocker in third with 67.  Ward led the Pac-12 with 10 steals in the shortened 2020 season and became the first Conference player to lead the league in stolen bases three times. He currently leads the Pac-12 and is third in the nation with 10.

Husky Freshmen: A couple of UW true freshmen have had moments to remember this season. Four different true freshmen have gotten a hit in their first-career at-bats this season. Emilio Corona and Kelly Corl each accomplished that against LMU. Carson Blatnick also ripped a single in his first career at-bat in the UTRGV series. Nick Kresnak singled in his first ever Husky at-bat in that series as well. Michael Brown's RBI double against Portland was the winning run on Tuesday and he launched his first career home run against UTRGV.