CCSU Drops 11-10 Home Game to Quinnipiac

The Central Connecticut baseball team cape back from a five run deficit to take a 10-9 lead in the eighth inning, but fell to Quinnipiac 11-10 at home on Friday. Senior Anthony Scialdone went 3-5 with three RBI on the day to lead the Blue Devils, who fall to 16-13 overall and 9-8 in Northeast Conference action. The Bobcats improve to 8-24 on the season and 7-6 in the NEC. The two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday and finish the series with a single game on Sunday.

CCSU got the scoring started with two runs in the first inning. After senior Sean Allaire drew a walk, junior Pat Epps drove him in with a triple off the right field wall to make it 1-0. Senior Tommy Meade then increased the Blue Devil lead to two when he singled up the middle, scoring Epps.

After Quinnipiac scored six runs throughout the top of the second and third innings to take a 6-2 lead, Central picked up two more scores in the bottom of the third. Junior Sean Miller-Jones singled and this time it was Allaire with a triple for the RBI. Allaire then scored off of a RBI single by Scialdone to make it 6-4.

The Bobcats then got out to its largest lead of the game, at 9-4, with three more runs in the fourth. The score stayed the same until the sixth when Scialdone again knocked Allaire in on a single. Senior Kyle Zarotney then reached on an error, stole second, and then took third on a throwing error. The right fielder finally made his way home on a wild pitch by Quinnipiac to make it 9-6.

Scialdone singled once again in the eighth to score Allaire, who reached on a single up the middle. After Epps got hit by a pitch and sophomore Mitch Wells reached first on an error, senior Richie Tri double to score three base runners and give CCSU a 10-9 lead heading into the ninth inning.

In the top of the ninth Quinnipiac's Gabe Guerino hit a two run home run over the right field wall to give the Bobcats the 11-10 lead that would hold for the rest of the way. Andrew Rinaldi came in to close for QU and recorded his second save of the season.

Derek Lamacchia recorded the win for Quinnipiac to improve to 1-4 on the season, while CCSU's Tyler Riordan gets credited with the loss, falling to 2-1 on the season.

Scialdone and Meade both finished 3-5 on the afternoon, while Tri was 2-4 with three RBI. Allaire and Miller-Jones both recorded two hits with the former tallying one run batted in.