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Dom Amore: UConn baseball’s slugging to bring NCAA Regional to Connecticut

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Dom Amore: UConn baseball’s slugging to bring NCAA Regional to Connecticut


STORRS – The sphere was flooded with children, most in Little League uniforms. The UConn baseball group accomplished its three-game sweep of Seton Corridor, tattooing the ball from begin to end to win 15-9 Sunday, and the most important crowd but to assemble at Elliot Ballpark, 1,508, was sticking round.

They got here down from the bleachers, from the grassy knolls encompass the diamond and the picnic areas, they have been working the bases, mobbing the dugout looking for autographs.

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“Nice day for baseball,” coach Jim Penders stated. “All weekend, that is what we envisioned actually 20 years in the past after I first turned the pinnacle coach. It was a dream, and now it’s a actuality. It’s fairly satisfying to see all these folks come out and cheer us on and provides them a superb product, too, one thing to get enthusiastic about.”

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UConn baseball has been a superb product, persistently, during the last dozen years or so, and this 12 months the Huskies (35-11) are a lock to go to the NCAA Match for the ninth time since 2010. However they’ve an opportunity to do one thing actually particular: host a Regional of their new campus ballpark, opened throughout the pandemic, simply starting to have its impact on this system. The Huskies are 50-8 right here.

“Coach Penders likes to maintain us within the second and never fear about what’s to come back down the road,” stated Luke Broadhurst, who had a single, double and triple amongst UConn’s 19 hits. “However I believe it’s effective to consider it and envision what it might be like, and the way particular that may be and what number of followers we’d have right here. It could be outstanding.”

At its finest, faculty baseball offers us a lot to take pleasure in, however so little time to take pleasure in it. If solely the nice and cozy climate arrived earlier, if solely the scholars have been on campus somewhat longer, however, no, issues align in order that there are just one or two weekends a 12 months to indicate up in brief sleeves and a straw hat to keep off the solar and actually savor a UConn recreation.

So there was this previous weekend towards Seton Corridor, with commencement ceremonies down the road, there shall be a Wednesday recreation towards Hofstra after which subsequent weekend towards Butler, and that might be it – until the NCAA sees match to place a Regional, or two, in New England in June.

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That’s the place issues get dicey. Nothing can kill a superb baseball buzz like analytics, and the unusual, advanced system that’s RPI, nonetheless the important thing metric for match selectors, muddies the waters. The Huskies win, and win and win some extra, but threat dropping within the rankings with every victory. Final weekend, after sweeping a doubleheader at Villanova, they dropped from No. 14 to No. 20. After sweeping Seton Corridor, the Huskies, ranked as excessive as ninth in nationwide polls, are holding serve precariously at No. 16. In the event that they run the desk and end 43-11, possibly they’ll be one of many 16 groups that get to host.

Possibly.

Hartford Courant file picture

UConn coach Jim Penders is pointing the best way to a different postseason for the Huskies.

The system’s damaged,” Penders stated. “In hockey, I do know they’ve rather a lot fewer groups, however in hockey, in case you win a recreation, you don’t get damage. I don’t suppose that’s the reply, however there’s received to be one thing they’ll put in that sort of lessens the penalty. When you win a recreation, you shouldn’t go backwards.”

It’s simpler stated, than carried out, as a result of solely 64 groups get in, solely 16 host, and power of schedule has to matter. However groups within the Northeast don’t have the robust out-of-conference scheduling choices, and the Massive East is usually a one- or two-bid league.

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“Appreciation for NE baseball is usually non existent,” UConn AD David Benedict lamented, by way of his Twitter feed. “(It’s) far more troublesome to be aggressive in all elements.”

For example how foolish it may possibly get, UConn coaches referred to as LIU, and earlier than they might sheepishly get the query out, coach Dan Parillo understood and supplied to name off the nonconference recreation scheduled this week in Storrs.

“He stated, ‘if I price you an opportunity to host, I might be depressing, I wouldn’t be capable to stay with that,’” Penders stated. So LIU, a group UConn as soon as performed at Ebbets Discipline, is not going to come to Storrs as a result of it’s 283rd in RPI and a win would injury the Huskies’ resume.

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The Ivy League insists its groups make up convention video games on the expense of nonconference video games, so UConn video games towards Yale (No. 243), which was to be performed at Dunkin’ Park, and Brown (No. 283) have been cancelled. Rain worn out UConn’s third recreation at Villanova (No. 256), sparing them the potential price of a 3rd victory, not to mention a loss, there.

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So be it, for 2023. If UConn can keep within the high 16, the NCAA may put Regionals in Storrs, assuming short-term buildings might be put as much as meet the wants, and at Boston School, with the Eagles within the high 10.

If anybody cares about rising curiosity in faculty baseball within the northeast, the place so many applications have given up on the game altogether, that may be an exquisite solution to do it. We’ll see.

For now, we’ve got this week to benefit from the newest group Penders and his workers have constructed by means of creating Connecticut expertise and dealing the switch portal. Offense is up in all places within the nation. If one have been to consider in conspiracy theories, it’s as if surplus jackrabbit balls eschewed by MLB a few years in the past have been delivered to the faculty recreation.

The Huskies, hitting .307 as a group with 62 homers in 46 video games, outscoring opponents 385-250, have slugged their manner by means of a tricky early season schedule, a cut up with Ohio State, a sweep at Florida Atlantic and three of 4 at Hawaii among the many highlights, and a house three-game sweep over Rutgers, to surge into the highest 10 within the main rankings, if not RPI. They lead the Massive East at 11-3, a recreation up within the loss column over Xavier.

“It’s most likely one of the best defensive group, total, I’ve ever had,” Penders stated. “Offensively, I believe there’s one other gear we are able to hit, and that’s horrifying to consider in case you’re our opponents. Pitching smart, the bullpen has actually stepped out, the beginning rotation is a piece in progress. However I like our probabilities towards anyone within the nation proper now, the best way we’re enjoying.”

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UConn, regardless of a 46-13 document, was despatched to Maryland as a No. 3 seed a 12 months in the past, and got here out of the Regional, going to Stanford for a Tremendous Regional sequence and developing a recreation wanting reaching the School World Collection.

Can this group slug its solution to Omaha? It will likely be enjoyable to look at them attempt, particularly if the primary cease on the NCAA journey is in Storrs. UConn hosted a Regional, as a No. 2 seed, at Dodd Stadium in Norwich in 2010 and, in case you have been one of many 5,600 there, or caught in site visitors making an attempt to get there when it began, you keep in mind it was an electrical night time. It’s time to stay it once more.

“The very fact these guys have put us able to even discuss that’s an accomplishment,” Penders stated. “Within the Northeast, it’s wonderful. We’ve performed ourselves into that place. What it might imply within the state of Connecticut, you see, proper now, we’re being swarmed (by younger autograph seekers) in a postgame interview, and to consider what it might be like in a Regional, what number of hundreds of individuals can be making an attempt to get to Storrs, Conn,, to see the Huskies. I believe it might be one thing the entire state may rally round and get enthusiastic about.”

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Connecticut’s time for energy investment is now – if state leaders get on board

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Connecticut’s time for energy investment is now – if state leaders get on board


As a 15-year veteran of the utility industry, I can tell you with certainty there’s nowhere like Connecticut. In other states, when utility companies receive downgrades in their credit rating, regulators and consumer advocates haul them into hearings, demanding to know their plans to rectify them.

Not so in Connecticut, where regulators themselves are named as the reason for the downgrades, and policymakers like the Office of Consumer Counsel and the Chairs of the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee work overtime to provide political cover.

Meanwhile, the scope of these downgrades – from S&P and Moody’s, two of the most respected financial institutions in the world – extend statewide, from two Avangrid companies, Eversource and all its subsidiaries, to even a small water company.

Whatever the political rhetoric, the impacts are serious and the damage long-term. Building a grid for Connecticut’s future will require billions in new investment over the decades to come, and with the downgrades warning investors to be increasingly skeptical of Connecticut utilities, every single dollar just got more expensive.

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The state has a long list of goals for its economy and clear objectives for its utilities: build a modern, sustainable, reliable, resilient, renewable, innovative electric grid capable of supporting massive capacity increases from electrification and data centers. Alienating the investment community does nothing to further those goals; it only makes them less attainable.

But until PURA and state policymakers abandon their anti-utility bias, they will continue to miss today’s golden opportunity to build the energy system of tomorrow –- an opportunity other states are rigorously pursuing. Instead, the excellent reliability that customers rely on, built through a long legacy of investment, will be whittled away even as costs continue to rise.

This, to a question that Sen. Norm Needleman and Rep. Jonathan Steinberg raise in their editorial, is why companies like ours “care” if our credit rating is downgraded. We are not so short-sighted as to shrug off the consequences of higher costs for our customers.

But even more significant are the consequences to long-term energy investment in Connecticut. Utilities are some of the most capital-intensive businesses in the country. We rely on selling bonds to finance safe, reliable, high-quality service through investments like new substations, battery storage, flood walls, microgrids and more.

Downgrades signal to investors they should pull their loans, leaving us with insufficient capital to advance these innovations. Instead, utilities are forced to put what limited capital we can raise (through higher premiums on our bonds) into the most basic, fundamental projects, like storm restoration efforts or pole replacements after traffic accidents.

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Accepting – and even incentivizing – PURA to enable meager investments to support only the most basic service puts Connecticut out of step with our neighbors, as other northeastern states are doing the hard work of system planning for the future. It’s no coincidence that Eversource is putting forward 30-year investment plans in Massachusetts while pulling $500 million in investments from Connecticut. Nor should it be surprising that Avangrid company New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) is building two 1-megawatt battery energy storage systems that tap directly into New York substations, a major resiliency investment, while nothing of the sort is happening in Connecticut.

Regulators in Massachusetts and New York are far from easy or passive. They have high standards that utilities must work hard to meet, and they do not get everything they ask for, as Needleman and Steinberg baselessly claim is our demand.

What Massachusetts and New York do is set the rules of the road for utility companies. They set clear standards of performance they expect from utility companies – in everything from the level of detail in rate cases to their forward-looking investment plans – and they hold them accountable.

That is not the case in Connecticut. Legislators can obfuscate, downplay, or even offer fictitious conspiracy theories -– most incredibly, that we would pay credit rating agencies, which are independent referees under federal law, to downgrade our credit ratings when downgrades are good for no one.

But none of these political games change the fact that energy companies cannot invest in a state in which PURA puts politically expedient rate cuts over its stated objectives. Nor will they alleviate the underinvestment these policymakers are apparently willing to accept in favor of the fabrication that PURA is “simply holding utilities accountable.”

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I fear Connecticut’s energy infrastructure, and the economy it’s built on, will be left behind as other states move forward with a clear vision. The golden opportunity for investment in the energy future is now, and we are at serious risk of missing it as our regulators and policymakers prioritize waging political war on the state’s utilities. The longer they dally, the more likely it is that PURA’s actions and inaction will leave us in the dark.

 Charlotte Ancel is the Vice President of Investor Relations at Avangrid, the parent company of United Illuminating, Connecticut Natural Gas, and Southern Connecticut Gas.



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Library in South Windsor wraps up 14th annual Gingerbread House Festival

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Library in South Windsor wraps up 14th annual Gingerbread House Festival


Some people found a sweet escape from Sunday’s frigid winter temperatures. A chance to step outside the cold and into a different snowy environment.

It just made it feel like Christmas,” said Michael Mizla, of Manchester.

“We try to do this every year,” said Susan, Mizla’s wife.

Sunday was the last day to check out a festive, holiday tradition at the Wood Memorial Library and Museum in South Windsor – The 14th Annual Gingerbread House Festival, which organizers say is one of the largest gingerbread house festivals in New England.

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“People have made this their tradition,” said the library’s executive director Carolyn Venne. “We see the same large Vermont family every year the day after Thanksgiving on opening day. So, as people come in to see family locally, this becomes part of their tradition, and that makes it all meaningful for us.”

These gingerbread houses are on display in multiple rooms and floors throughout the library for weeks, from late November to just before Christmas.

“We probably range from about 75 to 150, and I think one year we topped out around 200,” said Venne.

Venne says behind these intricate candy creations are bakers, students, and community members.

At the end of the day, the gingerbread houses went to some lucky raffle winners or were donated to a nursing home in the area.

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Those who needed to do some last-minute holiday shopping, were covered – just like the icing on these graham cracker homes – as people could visit the library’s ‘Ye Old Gingerbread Shoppe’ and take some of the magic home with them.

“The holidays are full of things you remember as a kid, so it just feels like the kind of tradition you will remember as you grow up.”

While Sunday was the last day to immerse yourself in these festive, edible villages, there are more holiday traditions coming up at the library, including a Christmas concert next Saturday at 1:30 p.m.



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Connecticut farmers to benefit from federal disaster relief package

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Connecticut farmers to benefit from federal disaster relief package


Funding to help farmers impacted by disaster is on the way for those who have been seeking help.

That’s one aspect of what came out of a vote in Washington D.C. that in part prevented a government shutdown.

A 13 minute hailstorm in August destroyed William Dellacamera’s crops and cost him $400,000. He was only able to receive a little less than half of that from programs already in place.

“From that day on, basically everything I had grown for the season was destroyed,” said Dellacamera of Cecarelli’s Harrison Hill Farm.

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He’s become known locally for driving his tractor from Connecticut to Washington D.C., advocating for more state and federal funding for farmers like him.

In his travels, he landed meetings with the USDA and Connecticut’s delegation.

“I think they’re taking it seriously, and they did. They took it seriously,” said Dellacamera.

President Biden signed a disaster relief bill into law, advocated for in part by Connecticut’s delegation.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro says Connecticut has lost 460 farms over the last five years, primarily related to weather events that put their livelihoods at stake.

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“I am pleased that we have an agreement on $100 billion in disaster aid,” said DeLauro on the House Floor Friday, who advocated for the bill.

As part of that, Connecticut farmers like Dellacamera will be able to tap into $23 million of relief from crop losses, according to Representative John Larson.

“Now knowing this is going to make a difference is a big deal. And I hope it does, I hope it does make a difference,” said Dellacamera.

Also part of the bill, DeLauro advocated for a block grant of $220 million that’s only for small and medium-sized farmers who have lost crops in 2023 and 2024.

All of New England would fit in the parameters for the grant, allowing farmers to get help without crop insurance or a national disaster declaration.

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“We came to a conclusion that these were all of the pieces that were needed to move forward,” said DeLauro on the House Floor Friday, about the bill as a whole.

DeLauro’s team tells us that disaster relief funding will go from the USDA to the states to get payments out.

 Dellacamera says he’s grateful, and there’s more work to be done.  He hopes this block grant and general disaster relief funding will be able to live on.

“It takes the red tape out of it a little bit,” said Dellacamera of the block grant. “Hopefully it could be funded into the future, you know, as it might be needed more and more,” he said.

In the meantime, the state of Connecticut will be identifying which farmers experienced disasters in 2023 and 2024 to see who would benefit from block grant funding.

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