Baseball Drops Sunday Doubleheader at Penn State

The Central Connecticut baseball team dropped both ends of a doubleheader at Penn State on Sunday afternoon. Penn State claimed a 4-1 and 13-3 win after a postponement of Saturday's contest turned the series conclusion into a doubleheader. CCSU slipped to 6-10 overall heading into Northeast Conference action next weekend.

Game #1: CCSU 1, Penn St. 4

The Nittany Lions started the day with a run in the bottom of the first when Taylor Skerpon led off with a triple to right center and scored on a fielder's choice. 

Junior Matt Martinez led off with a walk for Central in the third inning and after sophomore Franklin Jennings got on base via an error, the pair moved to second and third on a wild pitch. Penn State escaped the inning unharmed with an inning-ending strikeout, however.

The Blue Devils tied the contest in the sixth when Jennings drew a walk and advanced to third base on a failed pickoff attempt. Junior Connor Fitzsimons doubled down the line to right to drive home Jennings and make it 1-1.

Penn State scored the decisive runs in the seventh inning. Ryky Smith led off with a single and came around to score after Skerpon put the ball in play and reached on an error. Greg Guers followed with a triple to bring home Skerpon to make it 3-1. Skerpon completed the game's scoring after coming home with two outs after Jim Haley reached on a fielding error.

Central Connecticut brought the game-tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth when seniorDominic Severino doubled and junior Corey Lerche reached on an error. Sal Biasi got a strikeout to earn the save and complete a two-hitter for PSU.

Severino threw 6.1 innings and allowed two earned runs, before giving way to sophomore Brett Susi who threw 1.2 shutout innings.

Game #2: CCSU 3, Penn St. 13

Penn State (8-14) raced out to an early lead in the second game of the doubleheader with two runs in the third inning. Skerpon singled and scored on a double by Guers, who came home on a Aaron Novak to make it 2-0.

The Nittany Lions added to the lead with three runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth inning. Christian Helsel had a two-run single to help Penn State extend its lead to 9-0.

Central responded in the top of the seventh by loading the bases with no outs. Lerche led off with a single and freshman Ryan Costello followed with a double. A walk by Martinez loaded the bases, before freshman John Lippincott drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to right field. Freshman Nick Garland drove in a run on a groundout to first base and was followed by a run-scoring double from senior Bryan Rivera to make it 9-3. 

Penn State closed out the scoring with four runs in the eighth. Smith collect a pair of RBIs on a three-run single and Nick Graham drove in the final run on a single up the middle.

Rivera and Jennings each had two hits for the CCSU offense in the second game.

Central returns to action when it opens Northeast Conference play at Mount St. Mary's on April 2. The four-game series opens with a single game at 3 p.m. on Thursday.