Severino Powers Baseball Past Mount St. Mary's on Sunday

Senior Dominic Severino hit a grand slam to help lift the Central Connecticut baseball team past Mount St. Mary's, 7-6, in the finale of a four-game Northeast Conference series on Saturday. The win helped the Blue Devils earn a series split and improve to 8-12 overall and 2-2 in NEC play on the season.

The Mount slips to 4-16 overall and 2-2 in NEC play with the loss.

CCSU exploded for five runs in the second inning to take the early lead. With two outs and a runner on first base, sophomore Tom Lanzoni and sophomore Franklin Jennings notched back-to-back singles. Jennings' hit brought home freshman Dean Lockery to make it 1-0. Freshman Mike Arman followed with a walk to load the bases before Severino deposited a 1-0 pitch over the right field fence to clear the bases and make it 5-0. 

The Blue Devils tacked on a run in the top of the third. Junior Connor Fitzsimons reached on an error and moved to second after Lockery drew a walk. Lanzoni singled through the left side to score Fitzsimons and make it 6-0.

Mount St. Mary's got two runs back in the bottom of the third. Brendan Dabagian singled and moved to third on a single by Ryan Owens. Both players came around to score on hits by Andrew Clow and Kory Britton to cut the CCSU lead to 6-2.

Freshman Ryan Costello led off with a single to start the CCSU fifth inning. A single by Lockery and walk to Lanzoni loaded the bases with one out. A single to right center by Jennings scored Costello to make it 7-2, but Mount St. Mary's was able to escape the inning without further damage.

The Mountaineers chipped away at the Central lead in the sixth and seventh innings. A two-run homerun by Tyler Post to left field made it 7-4. In the bottom of the seventh with two outs, Clow singled home Dabagian and came around to score on a double by Britton to make it 7-6.

Sophomore Kevin Connolly came on in relief to get the final out of the inning and then struck out three over the final two innings to collect the save. Junior Casey Brown earned the win, throwing 6.2 innings and posting four strikeouts. 

Severino finished the day 2-for-4 with four RBIs at the plate for CCSU, while Costello added three hits. Jennings had two hits and two RBI, while Lanzoni added two hits as well.

Chad Diehl started for Mount St. Mary's and took the loss, allowing five earned runs over 3.0 innings. Dabagian and Clow each had three hits for the Mount offense.

The Blue Devils return to action on Wednesday with a 3 p.m. game at Quinnipiac.