Baseball Falls in the Ninth at Northeastern, 2-1
Series to continue with doubleheader Saturday.
The Central Connecticut baseball team fell to Northeastern, 2-1, on Friday afternoon in the opener of a three-game series. Senior Casey Brown struck out seven for CCSU in a duel between the starting pitchers. Sophomore Mitch Guilmette tied the game with a homerun in the top of the ninth, but the Huskies came back in the bottom of the inning to get the win.
Central is now 18-22 overall and Northeastern is 20-19.
Brown went 8.0 innings for Central and scattered five hits and walked just two batters, while striking out a season-high seven. Brown allowed just one NU runner to reach third base through the first six innings.
The only blemish on Brown's day came in the bottom of the seventh when Pat Madigan led off with a homerun to give Northeastern a 1-0 lead.
The Blue Devils got a jump in the top of the ninth when Guilmette led off the inning by taking an 0-1 pitch over the right field fence to make it 1-1. Sophomore Dean Lockery followed by reaching on an error and advancing to second base with no outs. A walk to senior Corey Lerche with one out would put runners on first and second, but NU's Mike Fitzgerald induced a double-play to end the threat.
The Huskies got a single from Keith Kelly to lead off the bottom of the ninth, followed by a walk to Madigan. After the Blue Devils failed to get the lead runner out on a sacrifice bunt, the Huskies had the bases loaded with no outs and Cam Walsh singled to center field to plate the winning run.
Guilmette finished the day 1-for-4 with a run and RBI for CCSU. Lockery, senior Connor Fitzsimons and sophomore John Lippincott each added a single.
Aaron Civale started for Northeastern and threw 7.0 shutout innings. He allowed just two hits while striking out 12. Fitzgerald got credit for the win after throwing the ninth inning.
The Blue Devils and Huskies will continue the series on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 11:00 a.m. The teams will play seven innings in the first contest, followed by a nine-inning contest in game two.