Blue Devil Baseball Drops a Pair of Games at Navy to Open the Season

The Central Connecticut baseball team opened the season by dropping a pair of games at Navy on Saturday afternoon. The Blue Devils lost the first game 12-9, before dropping a 14-8 decision in game two. Senior Tommy Meade drove in five runs on the day, including his first home run of the season. Junior Normand Gosselin drove in three, and also hit a home run. The two teams will play the second game of the doubleheader beginning around 2 p.m.

In game one, Navy scored the first four runs to take a 4-0 lead on the Blue Devils after two innings. Central answered and took the lead with a five-run third inning. With men on second and third, senior Sean Allaire grounded out to short to drive in the first run of the game. Junior Pat Epps' single drove in a run and then Meade drove in two to tie the game at 4-4. Gosselin singled in Meade for his first RBI at Central and gave the Blue Devils the lead.

Navy tied it up with a single run in the bottom of the fourth inning, making it 5-5.

Central put up three runs in the top of fifth inning to take an 8-5 lead. Gosselin, junior Sean Miller-Jones and senior Richie Tri all drove in runs in the inning for Central.

Navy answered with a six-run bottom of the fifth inning to claim an 11-8 lead. The Blue Devils cut it to 11-9 on an RBI single by senior Kyle Zarotney. Navy scored the final run of the game in the bottom of the sixth to claim the 12-9 win.

In game two, the Midshipmen scored two in the first and three more in the second to take a 5-2 lead. The Blue Devils got a pair of runs in the top of the second inning on a two-run homer by Meade, his first of the season.

Navy led 13-3 after five innings after scoring one in the third, four in the fourth and three more in the fifth. Central managed one run in the top of the fourth when Gosselin hit his first home run in a Blue Devil uniform.

The Blue Devils scored one run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Meade, and then two more in the seventh inning to cut the deficit to 14-6. In the seventh senior Anthony Scialdone and Epps each drove in a run for Central. They both drove in runs in the ninth to make it 14-8.

The two teams will play a single nine-inning game on Sunday beginning at 12 p.m.