Sweep Complete; Baseball Tops Long Island on Sunday for Seventh Straight Victory

Senior outfielder Jay Schillaci drove in four runs, including a three-run home run, as the Central Connecticut baseball team won for the seventh straight game, 11-9, over Long Island on Sunday afternoon. The win completes the weekend sweep for the Blue Devils and runs their record to 20-12 overall and and 10-5 in Northeast Conference action. Junior Anthony Scialdone ran his hitting streak to 22 games in the victory.

Senior lefty Derek Roberts improved to 4-1 on the season, winning his second straight league decision. He pitched six innings allowing six hits and five runs, only two of which were earned. He struck out one.

Down 5-4 in the sixth inning, the Blue Devils took advantage of several fielding miscues by the Blackbirds to score seven runs on only two hits. With the bases loaded sophomore Pat Epps reached on a fielding error by the right fielder and all three runners scored. A two-RBI triple by senior Sean Parker and an RBI double by junior Richie Tri helped CCSU take an 11-5 lead after five and a half innings. They sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning.

The Blue Devils wasted little time getting on the board using a three-run homer by Schillaci to open the scoring in the first inning. He added a sacrifice fly in the third for the fourth run of the game for Central Connecticut.

Long Island scored two in the first and two more in the second off of Roberts. They added one more in the bottom of the fourth inning to take a 5-4 lead before the Blue Devils plated seven in the sixth inning to take the lead for good.

Down 11-5, the Blackbirds scored four runs in the seventh inning, but could not get any closer.

Lefty Donny White came into the game for Central Connecticut to stop the rally for Long Island, and he earned his second save of the season. White pitched the final 2.2 innings allowing three hits and no runs. He struck out three and did not walk a batter.

Parker, junior Sean Allaire and Scialdone all had two hits for Central Connecticut in the victory. Senior Casey Walko, Epps and Schillaci all scored twice.

Scialdone's hitting streak reached 22-games with a double in the third inning. He would later come around to score on the sac fly by Schillaci. He also added a single in the ninth inning.