Baseball Tops Quinnipiac, 8-1

Central Connecticut jumped out to an early lead and topped Quinnipiac, 8-1, on Tuesday. Freshman Dean Lockery drove in two runs on three hits and junior Cody Brown pitched seven strong innings to help the Blue Devils even their record at 6-6 on the year.

Quinnipiac is now 4-14 on the season.

The Blue Devils opened the scoring in the second inning when senior Dominic Severino led off with a single and eventually scored on a single to right by junior Matt Martinez.

Central added two more runs in the bottom of the third. Senior Bryan Rivera was hit by a pitch to start the inning and moved to second on a single by Lockery. Rivera came around to score after two wild pitches and a double by junior Ian Glassman scored Lockery to make it 3-0.

Brown retired seven straight before the Bobcats threatened in the top of the sixth. Singles by Noah Hahn and Vincent Guglietti put runners on first and second with two outs before Lou Iannotti hit a ground-rule double to right field. Hahn came around to score, but with runners on second and third Brown got out of the jam with a strikeout.

The Blue Devils got the run back in the bottom of the inning when junior Corey Lerche led off the inning with a triple to left field and came home on a sacrifice fly by Martinez.

Central added two runs in both the seventh and eighth innings. Sophomore Franklin Jennings singled, stole a base and scored in both frames. Lockery drove him in with a single and a double by Lerche brought home Severino to make it 6-1 after seven innings.

Jennings drove in Martinez in the eighth, before coming home on a Lockery double to complete the scoring.

Brown improved to 2-0 on the season after allowing one run over seven innings, while striking out four. Severino pitched two shutout innings with a pair of strikeouts.

Five Blue Devils finished with at least two hits as they pounded out 12 hits as a team.

The Blue Devils will host UConn at 3 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon on the CCSU Baseball Field.