The Hartford Courant Jeff Jacobs column

STORRS -- As a freshman, Bobby Melley squeezed the last out of the last Big East Tournament championship.

It was the last time the UConn baseball team had advanced to the NCAA Tournament, and the 8-1 victory over Notre Dame that day in May 2013 would end with the same joyous dogpile as the one on Sunday, when the Huskies polished off Houston 7-2 on the same Bright House Field to capture the AAC tournament championship.

"Bobby was saying, 'I should have had the last out this time, too, if I caught the line drive. I would have had the last out on the popup,'" coach Jim Penders said Monday after his Huskies were selected to play Georgia Tech in the first game of the NCAA Regional at the University of Florida.

And while this may be true, there was another truth. Penders knew it. So did Melley. The last out of Bobby Melley's college career may well have come Saturday with the UConn first baseman in the stands in Clearwater, Fla. That's where Melley, a guy who has started 237 games for Penders -- a guy Penders loves -- found himself as UConn fell to Memphis 9-5 before rebounding for a 5-0 victory over Memphis to save its season.

"Saturday was one of the most difficult times. The whole day was very emotional," Melley said. "I was distraught. The next day, to come out and be able to contribute and help this team turned out to be one of the happiest days of my life."

Melley was suspended Saturday for what amounted to a curfew violation the previous night. In large part it was because of the leadership one of Penders' key leaders did not show among a group of five players. The fact that Melley felt horrible about it befits a senior captain. The fact that he bounced back in the championship to knock in the Huskies' first two runs with a homer and knock in the last run with a single is redemptive and entirely uplifting.

"I was just so happy for Bobby," Penders said. "He has been a great leader. He has meant a ton to this program. ... His teammates gave him a second chance to be a hero, and he made the most of it. I'm so proud of him."

Yet to leave it there is also to miss the moral of this championship weekend. Penders could have played Melley on Saturday and nobody on the outside would have known about the violation of team rules. Nobody got arrested. This involved no violence. Nothing like that. Melley bats No. 3 for the Huskies. His 287 hits over four years rank up there with anybody in the nation. The only thing that broke his streak of 225 consecutive games played at UConn was a stomach virus in May. With the season on the line, with the pressures of major college sports, what coach wouldn't have been tempted to keep him in the heart of his lineup?

"Watching from the stands was very painful for them," Penders said. "It was painful for everybody. But I knew it was the right decision. There was no doubt they had to be suspended.

"I had to remain consistent to the core values of the program. My first responsibility is as the caretaker of the program that Coach Christian, Coach Panciera and Coach Baylock built. My second responsibility is to the team. When the team is fighting for them, saying we need them back out there; we want them back for Sunday. 'Yeah, they're back for Sunday.'"

But not before Sunday.

"I felt the punishment fit the infraction," Penders said.

The easiest coaching call to make is discipline a player who sits the bench. The second easiest is to discipline a good player when the game doesn't mean much. One of your best players with the season on the line? That's when you find out plenty about a coach's character.

"Was it hard? Yeah," Penders said. "Coach Calhoun called me yesterday and said he had a similar situation in Indiana with Jerome Dyson. He said, 'My stomach was in knots. I felt like crap all day.' I said, 'I know how you feel, coach.'

"It was one of the worst days I had in coaching and one of the best. [Calhoun] said, 'It's like you got two wins.'"

One win on the scoreboard. One for integrity.

Still, Penders only slept two hours that night.

"There are rules, and if they are violated, a price must be paid," Penders said. "I talked it over with my coaches, but I had my mind made up. You have to suspend them. It wasn't my choice. It was the choice they made. They knew it. They wore it like men. That doesn't mean it wasn't hard. You see human failing and sometimes you forget they're 18 to 22 years old. When I was 18 to 22, I made some bad decisions, too."

Jim Penders is good guy, a really good guy. Bright, decent, competitive, a winner. Yet lost sometimes in his good nature is the fact that this is man who has stuck to his values over the years when it comes to discipline. It sounds easy enough, but nobility is much easier in theory than in the world of big-time college athletics. From Baylor football coach Art Briles back through the years, there are no shortages of coaches and crimes -- large and small -- that went unpunished for too long.

Last season, Pat Ruotolo was suspended the first eight games for off-field misbehavior. When there was another off-field problem, Penders suspended Ruotolo the first 14 games this season. Penders lost one-run games during those stretches. He was missing a top bullpen arm. Again, it could have cost him a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Again, Penders was resolute. Again, there was Ruotolo throwing three innings of scoreless relief in the championship game Sunday.

"I hope there is a level of respect all the time," Penders said, when asked if he felt the players respected his decision in Clearwater. "You show them respect, and you hope it is returned.

"The program is bigger than yourself. And it's bigger than any loss."

If any player knows this, it's Melley. This is a guy who got up at 5 a.m. to take the bus from Cape Cod to go to B.C. High. This is a guy who showed up at Storrs with no scholarship and leaves with some of the biggest numbers in program history. This is a guy who hits and hits and hits with calloused hands and no batting gloves. He knows Penders counted on him off the field as well as off it.

"It hurt him so much he was visibly sick Saturday," Penders said. "I heard he had to leave the game just to walk around and get his head straight. It hurt him like hell."

"It was emotional to just to take the field Sunday," Melley said. "The love I got from teammates made it feel even more special. I was locked in. I just want to do anything I could to help bring them a championship."

In the pandemonium of the on-field celebration, Penders made sure he found Melley.

"I gave him a big hug and told him I loved him," Penders said. "He's a really special kid."

Special enough to be held accountable to a proud baseball program.

"What is a coach if he doesn't make that call?" Penders said. "Could you look the other way? I guess. But then how do I sleep at night? I wouldn't be able to look my father [Jim, a legendary coach at East Catholic-Manchester] in the eye. I wouldn't be able to look Coach Baylock in the eye."

Outside Burton Family Complex, after the media had met with the Huskies, there was Andy Baylock, who retired as UConn baseball coach in 2003 and is now director of football alumni and community affairs. He was saying how happy and proud he was of Penders.

"I'm like a proud papa," Baylock said.

Strike one for principle.

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