Baseball Comeback Falls Short at Marist on Friday

The Central Connecticut State University baseball team scored four runs in the eighth inning, but fell just short of a comeback on the road at Marist on Friday. Central dropped the 7-6 decision, and falls to 18-16 overall on the season. Junior Pat Epps hit his 10th home run of the season in the loss. The Blue Devils and Red Foxes will play again, this time in New Britain on Saturday, in a single nine-inning game beginning at 1 p.m.

The Red Foxes struck first with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Central tied it up with a run in the fourth, making it 1-1. Epps hit his 10th home run of the season, a solo shot, to tie the game.

Marist answered with five runs in the bottom of the inning and one more in the fifth, taking a 7-1 lead.

The Blue Devils answered in the top of the sixth. Senior Richie Tri drove in the run with a sacrifice fly with men on second and third, cutting the lead to 7-2.

They crept even closer in the eighth, aided by a pair of Red Fox errors leading to three unearned runs. Senior Anthony Scialdone singled to lead off the inning and went to third on a double by Epps. Senior Tommy Meade's sacrifice fly scored the first run of the inning. Sophomore Mitch Wells walked. Senior Kyle Zarotney reached on an error by the first baseman, leading to Wells and Epps scoring. Freshman Chris Renzoni, the next batter, reached on an error by the shortstop, plating the the fourth run of the inning and a 7-6 score. The next batter hit into a double play to end the inning.

Wells had two hits for the Blue Devils. They had only six hits on the day, despite coming into the game in the top-five in the country in hitting. Marist had 10 hits and improved to 25-16 on the season.

The Blue Devils return to action on Saturday at 1 p.m. hosting Marist in a single nine-inning game.