Storrs – Luke Broadhurst’s double to start the bottom of the ninth sparked debate in the UConn baseball dugout Sunday afternoon.

The hit put the Huskies in position to complete the sweep of their Big East series against Villanova and extend their winning streak to a season-high eight straight.

Coach Jim Penders talked to his staff about whether to have senior Korey Morton bunt or swing away with the winning run on second base.

After receiving different opinions, Penders made the call.

Let Morton, who already had three hits, swing away.

Morton rewarded his coach’s faith in him by crushing a walk-off two-home run well over the left field field to hand UConn a dramatic 10-8 victory, sending the Elliot Ballpark record crowd of 1,527 fans home happy.

Penders explained his decision after the game.

“I see them overplay and they have their corners way in,” Penders said. “And I saw Korey not looking down at me and that made the decision easy to just let him swing. Thank God, he did.

“It was a good decision. He hit that to Willington. It was awesome.”

The scorching hot Huskies (25-18, 10-2) are making all the right moves and all the right plays these days. They reside in first place in the Big East.

Since starting out 9-15 overall, they’ve gone 16-3.

They’re playing sound fundamental baseball, receiving strong pitching and delivering in the clutch.

And they’re playing with confidence.

“Never doubt us,” Morton said. “We were down at one point and now we’re rolling here. We can overcome any battle that we are put in, in any game and in any situation. We’re winning games in a lot of different ways right now, which is really awesome.”

It was Morton’s turn to play the hero role on Sunday.

UConn watched Villanova (14-27, 5-10) rally from an 8-1 deficit to tie the score at 8-all by scoring two runs in the seventh and five in the eighth.

The Huskies kept their composure and regrouped.

“It was just positive talk from everybody,” Penders said.

After junior Brady Afthim (2-1), UConn’s fifth pitcher, escaped a two-on and two-out jam in the top of the ninth by retiring Shane Solari on a foul pop, the Huskies went to work.

Broadhurst, who went 3-for-5, nearly ended the game with one swing, drilling a shot off the top of the right field wall for a double.

Morton, who came into the game second on the team with a .311 batting average, stepped into the batter’s box against reliever Rian Schwede. He already had an RBI double and two singles.

“I was just trying to get my pitch and not chase anything bad,” Morton said. “And I just relaxed. I was looking for something elevated and just got that.”

With a mighty swing, Morton blasted his eighth home run of the season. His happy teammates mobbed him at home plate.

The Huskies received a strong starting pitching performance from junior Ian Cooke, who allowed four hits and a run in six innings, striking out three and walking one.

Graduate outfielder Jake Studley slugged his seventh home run of the season, a grand slam that pushed UConn’s lead to 8-1 in the sixth, and finished with two hits.

But the Huskies still had a few tricks up their sleeves.

It added up to a fun and wildly entertaining day in Storrs.

“This is the kind of day that we envisioned building the place and having the vision to build the place back in 2003…,” Penders said. “It’s such a great feeling to see so many people come out and support us and have a great show, too. And now you’ve got hundreds of kids sticking around to get autographs from our guys. What’s better than that?

“It gave me a really good feeling to see Doug and Sheila Elliot sitting in their seats in pregame and watching and hopefully getting to feel the reward of their incredible contribution to make this thing happen. It was great.”

g.keefe@theday.com