Baseball Falls to Mount St. Mary's in Series Finale
Blue Devils travel to UMass on Tuesday.
The Central Connecticut baseball team fell to Mount St. Mary's, 6-4, in the series finale on Sunday afternoon at CCSU Baseball Field. The loss snapped a six-game conference win streak for CCSU, which falls to 13-16 overall and 6-6 in the Northeast Conference.
The Blue Devils rapped out 10 hits on the day, but left nine runners on base and the Mountaineers took advantage, by scoring four unanswered runs to avoid the series sweep.
The Blue Devils scored first with a run in the third. After loading the bases in the second, but coming away empty, CCSU loaded the bases again in the third. Sophomore Dean Lockery led off with a walk and moved to third after a single by sophomore Ryan Costello and a walk to junior Andrew Hinckley. Senior Corey Lerche drove in the run with a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0.
Mount came back with a run in the top of the fourth. Tyler Post led off with a double and moved to third on a single by Patrick Causa. Post came home to score on a throw to second on a stolen base by Causa. The Mountaineers got runners to second and third, but were unable to do further damage.
Central regained the lead with a run in the fifth. Lockery led off with a walk, senior Connor Fitzsimons was hit by a pitch and Costello walked to load the bases. Hinckley drew a walk to plate Lockery and make it 2-1. The Mountaineers managed to work out of the inning and leave the bases loaded.
Vaughn Parker led off the sixth inning with a homerun for Mount St. Mary's to tie the game at 2-2.
Central scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning to retake the lead. Sophomore John Lippincott singled to lead off and moved to second on an error. Lockery followed with a single to put runners on the corners. Lockery stole second base and the throw went into centerfield to allow Lippincott to score and Lockery to move to third. A sacrifice fly by Fitzsimons brought him home and gave CCSU a 4-2 lead.
Mount St. Mary's took the lead for good in the top of the seventh with three runs. After Tommy Quealy was hit by a pitch to lead off, Ryan Owens singled to put runners on first and second. The Blue Devils got consecutive ground outs on the next two batters, getting the force out at third base each time to leave runners on first and second with two outs. Before Central could get out of the inning, however, Tyler Post hit a three-run homerun to left center to make it 5-4.
The Mountaineers would tack on a run in the eighth after Causa led off with a double and scored on a single by Owens to make it 6-4.
The Blue Devils got a lead off single from Fitzsimons in the ninth, but a fielder's choice and then a game-ending line drive double-play ended the day.
Lockery and Hinckley each reached base four times in the game. Lockery scored three runs and went 2-for-3, while Hinckley drove in a run and had two hits. Fitzsimons went 2-for-3 with an RBI.
Junior Brett Susi started for Central and went 7.0 innings. He allowed five runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and one walk. The loss dropped him to 3-3 on the season.
Owens went 3-for-5 for the Mount, while Post was 2-for-5 with two runs scored and three runs batted in.
Michael Kuypers got the win in relief for Mount St. Mary's. He threw 5.0 innings, allowing two unearned runs on four hits. He walked one and struck out five to improve to 1-2 on the season.
Central returns to action on Tuesday, April 12, with a 3:00 p.m. game at the University of Masschusetts.
