Baseball Drops Series Opener to Wagner on Thursday

The Central Connecticut baseball team fell to Wagner, 7-2, in the opener of a four-game Northeast Conference series on Thursday afternoon at CCSU Baseball Field. The two squads are coming into the final weekend of conference play tied for the fourth and final spot in the league tournament.

CCSU is now 20-32 overall and 12-17 in NEC play.

Wagner scored two runs in the second to get on the scoreboard first. Sean Mazzio led off with a single and moved around to third on a sacrifice bunt and a single by Kyle Brey. Nick Mascelli hit a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0. A balk moved Brey to second and he came all the way around to score on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.

The Seahawks added to the lead in the fifth with four runs. Wagner loaded the bases with one out and an error allowed a run to come across and keep the bases loaded. Brendan Benecke and Mazzo followed with back-to-back singles to bring across three more runs and make it 6-0.

Central would get a run back in the bottom half of the inning. Senior Connor Fitzsimons hit a one-out double to the wall in left field and came around to score after sophomore John Lippincott followed with a single to make it 6-1.

Wagner added a run in the seventh on a homerun by Benecke.

Senior Corey Lerche led off the bottom of the ninth for CCSU with a homerun to left field to make it 7-2, but Austin Goeke would retire the next three batters to finish off the complete game.

Goeke held CCSU to two runs on six hits, while striking out four and walking two.

Six different Blue Devils collected a hit with Fitzsimons and Lerche each hitting one for extra bases.

Freshman Brandon Fox started for CCSU and took the loss. He went 5.0 innings and allowed six runs, five earned.

The series continues on Friday with a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 p.m. Each game is scheduled for seven innings.