Baseball Beats Sacred Heart 9-5, Takes Weekend Series

The Central Connecticut State University baseball team won on the road at Sacred Heart on Sunday, 9-5, to take three out of four from the Pioneers over the weekend series. Senior Tommy Meade had two hits and a pair of RBI, and was the winning pitcher, as Central improved to 14-12 overall and 9-7 in Northeast Conference play. Junior Pat Epps drove in three more runs and finished the weekend with eight RBI.

Sacred Heart scored a single run in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. The Blue Devils answered in the third with four runs to take a 4-1 lead. Senior Sean Allaire was credited with an RBI when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Junior Normand Gosselin scored on a wild pitch to score the second run. Meade doubled with men on second and third to score two more and make it 4-1.

The lead reached 5-1 on a sacrifice fly by Gosselin, scoring senior Richie Tri who reached on an error to lead off the inning.

Sacred Heart cut the lead to 5-4 with a run in the sixth and two more in the seventh.

Central answered with three in the top of the eighth to stretch the lead to 8-4. Epps hit a two-run home run, his third of the week and sixth of the season. Senior Kyle Zarotney added a sacrifice fly for the third run of the inning.

Sacred Heart scored one in the eighth, but Central added a final run in the ninth for the 9-5 final. Epps drove in the run with a fielder's choice, his third RBI of the game and eighth of the weekend series. He finished the five games last week, including a win at Holy Cross, with 10 RBI in five games.

Meade picked up the win on the mound, improving to 2-0 on the season. He pitched seven innings allowing seven hits and only three earned runs. He struck out six. Roy Natoli pitched the eighth allowing one run. Zarotney pitched a scoreless ninth, his third scoreless appearance of the season, without allowing a hit and striking out one.

Epps had three RBI while Meade added two. Junior Sean Miller-Jones and sophomore Mitch Wells each had two hits.

The Blue Devils have a busy week next week. They play Tuesday at UMass and then at home on Wednesday vs. Fairfield. Next weekend they host Quinnipiac in a four-game weekend series beginning Friday at 3 p.m.