Baseball Ends Regular Season With Victory on Senior Day on Sunday

The Central Connecticut State University baseball team ended the regular season with a 16-10 victory over Long Island on Sunday. The win came on Senior Day, as the Blue Devils honored their nine seniors prior to the first pitch. Senior Dan Markoya picked up his second win of the season on the mound. With the victory the Blue Devils end the regular season 29-20 overall and 18-14 in Northeast Conference play. As the #2 seed, they will face #3 seed Wagner on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in the NEC Tournament being held in New Jersey.

The Blue Devils struck first for the first time on the weekend. Senior Tommy Meade tripled to deep right center to score junior Pat Epps who had singled to lead off the second inning.

The Blackbirds took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning when a run scored on a wild pitch and Julian Castro doubled to left field to plate the second run. The Blue Devils threw out a runner at the plate to end the inning.

Central opened up a 7-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. They scored six unearned runs on five hits and an error to take the lead. Senior Sean Allaire had an RBI single and senior Richie Tri and Epps each drove in a pair of runs in the inning for Central.

The Blackbirds added a run in the sixth on a solo home run by Greg DeSantis, making it 7-2.

Central opened it up in the sixth inning, scoring five runs to make it 12-3. Tri hit his sixth home run of the season to score two runs. After a walk, sophomore Mitch Wells hit his eight home run of the year to drive in two. Senior Kyle Zarotney drove in the final run of the frame to give Central the nine-run lead.

Long Island scored five runs on three hits in the seventh inning to cut the lead to 12-8.

The Blue Devils answered again in the bottom of the inning and scored three runs to make it 15-8. Zarotney drove in a pair of runs with his fourth hit, and Wells added his third RBI to give Central the seven-run lead. Allaire hit a solo home run in the eighth to make it 16-8.

Markoya picked up his second victory of the season. He pitched 5.1 innings allowing three runs on eight hits while striking out two Long Island batters.

Tri had three hits and drove in four runs, including his home run which came in the sixth inning. Wells had three RBI and a home run while Zarotney finished with four hits and three RBI. He also pitched in the game for the Blue Devils. Allaire had four hits on the day, including his 13th home run of the season, and drove in two. Epps had three hits and two RBI and reached base in five of his six plate appearances.

The Blue Devils, who are the #2 seed in next week's NEC Tournament, will face #3 Wagner on Thursday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. Fans can watch all of the action live by logging on to www.NortheastConference.tv

SENIOR DAY PHOTO GALLERY