Baseball Scores 17 and Has 20 Hits in Victory at UMass on Tuesday

Senior Sean Allaire went 5-for-5, scored five runs and drove in three more as the Central Connecticut State University baseball team topped UMass 17-12 on Tuesday afternoon. The win moves Central to 15-12 overall on the season, and is their fifth win in their last six games. They return to action tomorrow afternoon hosting Fairfield in a single game beginning at 3 p.m.

Central struck first with a pair of runs in the top of the first inning. Senior Tommy Meade singled in a pair of runs with one out, scoring both Allaire and sophomore Mitch Wells. The Blue Devils had three hits in the inning.

In the third inning, Allaire doubled to right field scoring junior Sean Miller-Jones, who had doubled to lead off the inning. Three more runs scored in the inning to give Central a 6-0 lead. Sophomore Mitch Wells singled, and Allaire scored on a throwing error. Junior Pat Epps, this week's Northeast Conference and ECAC Player of the Week, hit a two-run home run to score the final two runs of the inning.

UMass added three runs in the bottom of the inning to make it 6-3.

In the fourth, Allaire hit his fifth home run of the season to up the lead to 7-3. The Minutemen cut it to 7-5 in the bottom of the fourth, when Mike Gedman hit a two run home run with no outs off Blue Devil starter Dan Markoya.

Three more runs in the fifth inning upped Central's lead to 10-5. Freshman Chris Renzoni and Miller-Jones each drove in a run, and Allaire added his third RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly.

UMass cut the lead to 10-9 in the sixth inning with four runs, one of which was unearned.

Epps drove in his third and fourth runs of the game with a single up the middle in the seventh, giving Central a 12-9 lead. The lead reached 17-9 with five runs in the ninth for the Blue Devils. Meade, Renzoni and junior Normand Gosselin all drove in runs in the inning. Four of the runs were unearned following a UMass error.

The 20 hits were the third-highest total on the season for the Blue Devils, as were the 17 runs. It marked the 10th time this season the Blue Devils have scored at least 10 runs in a game.

Allaire's five hits matched a season-high, and he raised his league-leading batting average to .454. He is tied for the league-lead in RBI with Meade, they each have 39 after Tuesday's game.

Seven Blue Devils had at least two hits in the win. Meade and Epps each drove in four while Allaire had three.

The Blue Devils return to action tomorrow at home at 3 p.m. against Fairfield.