Blue Devils Drop Into Loser's Bracket with 8-3 Loss vs. Sacred Heart on Friday
The second seeded Central Connecticut State University baseball team fell into the loser's bracket of the Northeast Conference Tournament with an 8-3 loss to top seed Sacred Heart on Friday. The loss, which drops Central to 30-21 on the season, puts the Blue Devils in an elimination game on Saturday at 12 noon against Wagner. Central topped the Seahawks 5-3 on Thursday in the first game of the tournament for both teams. Wagner defeated Monmouth 9-4 in Friday's first contest.
The second seeded Central Connecticut State University baseball
team fell into the loser's bracket of the Northeast Conference
Tournament with an 8-3 loss to top seed Sacred Heart on Friday.
The loss, which drops Central to 30-21 on the season, puts the Blue
Devils in an elimination game on Saturday at 12 noon against
Wagner. Central topped the Seahawks 5-3 on Thursday in the first
game of the tournament for both teams. Wagner defeated Monmouth
9-4 in Friday's first contest.
The Blue Devils struck first with a pair of runs in the top of the
second inning. Junior Pat Epps doubled to lead off
the inning, and then scored when sophomore Mitch Wells reached on
a throwing error by the shortstop. Wells scored on a groundout by
senior Anthony Scialdone to make it
2-0.
The Pioneers took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with
three runs. Hunter Phillips drove in a run with a double and Mike
Drowne plated another run on a fielder's choice when Phillips slid
under the tag of the Central catcher. The run gave the Pioneers
the one-run lead.
Sacred Heart opened it up in the bottom of the fifth inning,
scoring five runs and chasing Central starter Tommy
Meade from the game. They led 8-2 after the inning that was
highlighted by a three-run home run by Dave Moisture.
Central got a run back in the sixth inning, when Meade singled up
the middle to score senior Sean Allaire. Allaire had
singled to lead off the frame. The run made it 8-3.
Meade and Scialdone each had an RBI for the Blue Devils. Epps had two of the four hits in the game for Central. The four hits in the game were a season-low. They entered the game averaging 13 hits and nine runs per game on the season.
The Blue Devils will play Wagner on Saturday at 12 p.m. in an elimination game. The winner will advance to the Championship Round while the loser will be eliminated from the tournament. The first game of the Championship Round takes place on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Sacred Heart has already advanced to that round, and will need to lose twice to be elimininated from tournament play.
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