Late Rally Lifts UMass Past Baseball in Extra Innings

The Central Connecticut baseball team fell at Massachusetts, 6-5, in 10 innings on Tuesday afternoon. The Minutemen scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game and then a run in the 10th to win.

The Blue Devils are 13-17 overall on the season and the Minutemen are 7-13.

CCSU opened the scoring with a run in the top of the first inning. Sophomore Dean Lockery led off with a double and moved to third base on a single by freshman David Balunek. Sophomore Ryan Costello hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield to drive in Lockery and make it 1-0. 

UMass came back to score twice in the bottom of the first. Brett Evangelista walked to lead off and came around to score on a double by Dylan Morris. Morris moved to third base on the throw and scored on the next batter when Mike Hart singled to make it 2-1.

Lockery led off the third inning with a bunt single. Costello drove him in with a two-run homerun to right field to give Central a 3-2 lead.

The Minutemen came back to tie the game in the bottom of the third. John Jennings drew a one-out walk and moved to second base on a single. A groundout allowed Jennings to move to third base and he came in to score on a passed ball to make it 3-3.

The teams again traded runs in the fourth inning. Sophomore Nick Garland hit his first homerun, depositing a 1-1 pitch over the left field wall to make it 4-3. 

UMass got back-to-back singles from Vinny Scifo and Evangelista to open the bottom of the fourth and put runners on the corners. Scifo came home to tie the game at 4-4 when Evangelista was thrown out attempting to steal second base.

The Blue Devils manufactured a run in the top of the sixth to regain the lead. Senior Corey Lerche led off with a single and moved to second base after sophomore Dylan Maher followed with a single of his own. A sacrifice moved the runners to second and third and Garland drove in Lerche with a fly ball to right field to make it 5-4.

The Minutemen rallied in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings. Mike Geannelis started the rally with a one-out single, followed by a single by Hunter Carey to move runners to first and second. Following a strikeout, Jon Avallone reached on an infield single, but a throwing error allowed the runners to advance a base and brought the tying run in to make it 5-5.

UMass scored the winning run in the 10th. Evangilsta led off with a single, but CCSU got back-to-back fielder's choice outs. With two outs, Mike Hart moved into scoring position by stealing second base. Jennings singled up the middle to drive him in and win the game for UMass, 6-5.

The Blue Devils pounded out 12 hits, marking the seventh time in eight games they have recorded at least 10 hits as a team. Lockery finished 3-for-5 at the plate with two runs scored. Garland went 2-for-3 with two runs batted in and a run scored. Junior Tyler Coleman added a pair of hits, while Costello drove in three runs.

Freshman Jared Gallagher started for Central. He allowed three runs, two earned, on four hits in 3.0 innings of work. He struck out five, but walked four. Juniors Adam Neveski and Michael Pastore combined to allow two runs in 6.0 innings of relief. Pastore struck out five batters. Sophomore Stanley Wolpiuk allowed one run in 0.2 innings and was saddled with the loss.

Evangelista and Geannelis each had three hits for the Minutemen.

Casey Aubin started for UMass and went 4.0 innings. He allowed four runs on six hits with four strikeouts. Ben Panunzio threw 1.2 shutout innings and got the win.

The Blue Devils open a four-game Northeast Conference series against Sacred Heart on Friday, April 15. First pitch is set for 5:30 p.m. at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, CT.