Baseball Drops Slugfest to Second Seed Sacred Heart in Northeast Conference Tournament

The Central Connecticut baseball team will need to come out of the loser's bracket if they are going to claim their fourth Northeast Conference Tournament title. CCSU dropped a slugfest to second-seed Sacred Heart on Thursday afternoon, 16-13, in the first round of the championship. With the loss the Blue Devils are a loss away from elimination, and will face top-seed Wagner at 12 p.m. on Friday. Wagner dropped a 14-8 decision to fourth-seed Monmouth in the first game of the day. Junior Richie Tri tied a championship record with six RBI, including a grand slam, for the Blue Devils in the loss. CCSU is now 26-21 this season.

The Pioneers took a 3-0 lead with three two-out runs in the bottom of the first inning off of Blue Devil starter Derek Roberts. An RBI double by Tyler Santos and a two-run home run to center field by Jeff Heppner plated the three runs for the Pioneers.

The Blue Devils answered quickly with a pair of runs in the top of the second inning. Tri led off the second inning with a single up the middle. A single to right center by senior Jay Schillaci put runners on first and second. Junior Tommy Meade singled through the right side and scored Tri. An RBI groundout by senior Sean Parker scored Schillaci and cut the lead to one.

The Blue Devils took their first lead of the game in the top of the fourth inning. With one out Schillaci singled up the middle for his second hit of the game. A triple down the left field line by Meade tied the game at 3-3. It was Meade's second RBI of the game. Parker doubled to the wall in left field giving Central Connecticut its first lead of the game, 4-3.

The Pioneers wasted little time taking the lead back from the Blue Devils. Paul Schmidt led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run to right center to tie the game. Hunter Phillips registered a single and went to second on a throwing error by Roberts. With one out Phillips went to third base on a wild pitch and he scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by leadoff man Mike Drowne.

With the bases loaded in the fifth inning Tri singled to right field and plated two runs, giving the Blue Devils the 6-5 lead. Schillaci reached on a fielder's choice, but following the play Tri advanced to third base as no one covered the base following the out. On the first pitch in the next at-bat, Meade hit a sacrifice fly, his third RBI, scored Tri. Schillaci scored from third on an error by the catcher after a dribbler off the bat of freshman Mitch Wells. It was the third error of the inning for the Pioneers and made it 8-5.

Santos led off the Sacred Heart bottom of the inning with a deep double off the left field wall. He went to third on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single to right field by Robert Griffith, cutting the Blue Devil lead to 8-6.

The Blue Devils took a 12-6 lead in the top of the sixth inning. Walko led off with a single up the middle. Scialdone walked and Epps reached on the fourth Sacred Heart error to load the bases. Tri hit a grand slam to deep right center field for his sixth RBI of the game, matching the league record, and made it 12-6 in favor of the Blue Devils.

Hanson hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to cut the lead to 12-8. The Pioneers took a 13-12 lead with five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Tantillo tripled with the bases loaded to plate three runs and cut it to one. He scored on a fielder's choice by Santos, tying the game. Griffith singled to score the fifth run of the inning and give the Pioneers the 13-12 advantage.

The Blue Devils tied the game in the eighth inning as Epps led off with a single and went to third on a single by Tri. Schillaci doubled down the left field line to score Epps and tie the game at 13-13.

Drowne gave the Pioneers the lead in the bottom of the eighth with a two-run home run. They added a third run in the inning to make it 16-13.

The Blue Devils used three senior pitchers in the game. All three were weekend starters this season for CCSU. Roberts got the start and was relieved by senior righty Taylor Kosakowski and senior lefty Ken Kerski. Kerski picked up the loss in the game, falling to 6-3 on the season.

The Blue Devils will now play in the loser's bracket of the tournament and face #1 seed Wagner at 12 p.m. on Friday afternoon.