Baseball Suffers First Loss of the Season Sunday at Navy

The Central Connecticut baseball team suffered its first loss of the season on Sunday, 14-7, at Navy. The Blue Devils finish the weekend with a 3-1 record, beating Iona twice and splitting a pair of games with Navy. Junior Tommy Meade drove in two more runs for the Blue Devils in the loss on Sunday, giving him six RBI on the weekend. CCSU is scheduled to play at Hartford on Wednesday, March 11.

The Blue Devils once again got on the board first with a pair of runs in the top of the first inning. Sean Allaire singled and later scored the first run of the game on a Navy error. Junior first baseman Tommy Meade's sacrifice fly scored the second run of the inning.

Navy answered with four runs in the bottom of the first inning off of Blue Devil start Donny White. Three more runs in the bottom of the third inning paced the home team to a 7-2 lead. White lasted just two innings allowing six hits, six runs, three of them earned, while striking out two.

A four-run fourth inning for the Blue Devils cut the lead to one, 7-6. Sophomore Pat Epps singled to lead off the inning and scored on an RBI double by Meade, his second RBI of the game. Freshman Mitch Wells singled putting runners at first and third with no outs. Senior catcher Sean Connors singled to left scoring Meade and making it 7-4. Junior Richie Tri's RBI groundout made it 7-5 and Connors scored on a wild pitch to cut the lead to just one, 7-6.

Two more runs in the sixth for Navy increased the lead to 9-6. Junior Wes Poppe, seeing his first action on the mound in a Blue Devil uniform, pitched three innings before allowing an earned run. In his fourth inning of work Navy an RBI single and an RBI groundout plated two runs to push the lead back to three.

Senior Casey Walko's RBI single in the top of the seventh inning cut it to 9-7. Navy answered with a five-run bottom of the inning to open a 14-7 lead. Poppe left the game allowing seven earned runs in 4.2 innings while striking out four.

Meade led the offense with two RBI, giving him six on the weekend. He was one of three Blue Devils to post six RBI in the four-game stretch to open the season. He had three hits in the loss.

The Blue Devils are scheduled to play at Hartford on Wednesday, March 11 at 3 p.m. Check back early in the week to see if that game will be played as scheduled.