After a game that featured 19 total runs, a bunch of mistakes, and heroic moments alike from both sides, the winner-take-all finale of the College Park regional came down to the wire.
In the end, senior Justin Willis, the Huskies’ self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie closer, retired the final six Terrapin batters to hold on for an 11-8 win and send Jim Penders’ squad to its first super regional since 2011.
“He’s an animal of a competitor and he has no fear,” head coach Jim Penders said of his closer. “He has a steely nerve.”
Willis wasn’t the only UConn pitcher pushed to his limit — after throwing 109 pitches on Friday against Wake Forest, Austin Peterson entered in the fifth and delivered 28 more, digging out 2.