Clearwater, Fla. — Third-seeded UConn won its American Athletic Conference baseball tournament opener with a 12-3 victory over No. 6 Cincinnati on Tuesday at Spectrum Field.

Junior Willy Yahn's grand slam in the seventh inning broke open a tight game for the defending champion Huskies (32-23), who seized an 8-3 lead and then added four more runs in the eighth.

Freshman Anthony Prato had four of UConn's 10 hits and added three RBI while Yahn had two hits and scored two runs and senior Aaron Hill of Groton had a single, two walks and scored two runs.

Reliever Dan Rajkowski (2-1) earned the win and junior Sam Nepiarsky didn't allow a run or hit in four innings, striking out six and picking up a save.

Up next for UConn is a 3 p.m. winners' bracket game Thursday against No. 2 Houston, a 6-5 winner over No. 7 Memphis on Tuesday. 

In other news:

• For the first time, two Mitchell College baseball positional players — juniors Kyle Hartenstein and Garet Griffin — earned D3Baseball.com All-New England honors in the same season. Hartenstein was selected as the top second baseman, receiving first team honors. Griffin, a shortstop, made the third team. They sparked the Mariners to a 29-13 record and New England Collegiate Conference regular season title.

Hartenstein and Griffin also received New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association/American Baseball Coaches Association Division III All-New England honors. Hartenstein, who batted .422, had 43 RBI and school-single season record 70 hits, landed on the first team. Griffin, the NECC player of the year, made the second team. He batted a program-record .496 and had 41 RBI.

• UConn-Avery Point (27-14) opens NJCAA Division II World Series play against Kankakee Community College (Ill.) at 5 p.m. Saturday at David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid, Okla. The Pointers are the 10th seed in the double-elimination tournament. Seventh-seeded Kankakee (48-10-1) was ranked sixth in the nation in last week's poll.

College sailing

• Coast Guard Academy is off to a strong start at the College Sailing Sperry Women's Nationals, which began Tuesday in Charleston, S.C. After the first of two semifinal regattas, the defending national champion Bears sit in fourth place in the Western Division with 41 points, trailing leader Brown (22 points), College of Charleston (28) andYale (30). Vermont (41) rounds out the top five.

The top nine teams in each of the two divisions advance to the two-day finals starting on Thursday. Boston University leads the Eastern Division with 25 points, followed by Rhode Island (32), Boston College (41), St. Mary's College (44) and George Washington (45) in the top five.