The University of Connecticut, long regarded as a college baseball doormat, seems likely to have two first-round picks in next month's First-Year Player Draft. The Huskies have a rich baseball history that tracks back eight decades, but they've only had one player -- former big leaguer Charles Nagy -- who was taken in the first round since the institution of the Draft in 1965. Now, outfielder George Springer and right-handed pitcher Matt Barnes appear to be on the fringe of changing that. "I think we're starting to put ourselves on a national stage and people really recognize us as a good program now," Barnes said. "When I got here, it was on its way up, and people knew that we had a chance to do some things. Predominantly, it was a basketball school, and football was starting to make a name for itself. We weren't really nationally known in baseball when I got here, but the last two years, we've definitely done a pretty good job of changing that." UConn has gone to the College World Series just five times in its program history, and it hasn't managed to make it that far since 1979. The Huskies, ranked No. 18 in the country by Baseball America, set the team record for victories (48) last season, and they're two wins shy of winning the Big East regular-season title for the first time.