Baseball Drops Home Opener to Northeastern

The Central Connecticut baseball team dropped its home opener on Saturday afternoon to Northeastern, 5-3 in in extra innings.  Central was playing its first game of the season and is now 0-1.  Northeastern improves to 5-6. 

The Blue Devils return to action on Sunday at 11 a.m. hosting Brown on the CCSU campus.  Northeastern and Brown will play a second game immediately following the CCSU/Brown contest.

The Blue Devils had a chance to strike first but left the bases loaded in the first inning after a pair of hits.  The Huskies took a 1-0 lead on a solo home run from Michael Foster off of Blue Devil sophomore starter Matt Blandino.

The Blue Devils tied the game 1-1 on an RBI groundout from freshman John Lippincott in the bottom of the fourth inning.  With men on second and third Lippincott grounded out to the shortstop to score freshman Ryan Costello who had reached base following a strike out.

The Huskies took a 3-1 lead with a pair of unearned runs in top of the seventh inning off of Blandino.  The first run scored on a throwing error and the second on an RBI double from Max Burt.

The Blue Devils scored twice in the bottom of the eighth inning to tie the game 3-3.  Freshman Dean Lockery singled to lead off the inning and then went to second on walk to sophomore Tom Lanzoni.  Following an infield single from sophomore Franklin Jennings, a sacrifice fly from junior Connor Fitzsimons and an RBI groundout from junior Ian Glassman tied the game.

It remained tied until the top of the 11th inning when the Huskies plated a pair of runs to take the 5-3 lead.  A two-run double from Joey Scambia proved to be the difference in the game.

Blandino went seven for the Blue Devils in his first outing of the season.  He picked up the loss but allowed only one earned run on a solo home run.  He struck out seven and allowed only five hits while walking just one, the last batter that he faced.

Jennings had three hits in the game for the Blue Devils while Lockery finished with two.  Senior Jesse Frawley pitched 3.1 innings in relief for the Blue Devils giving up a pair of runs and two hits.  Aaron Civale picked up the win for Northeastern with four innings of scoreless relief.

The Blue Devils will return to action on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. vs. Brown.  They will also play at home on Monday vs. Northeastern at 2:30 p.m.