Baseball Wins Series Finale Over Sacred Heart, 2-1
The Blue Devils are back in action on Tuesday at CCSU Baseball Field against UMass Lowell at 3:00 p.m.
Central Connecticut won Sunday's Northeast Conference baseall series finale, 2-1, over Sacred Heart. The win improved the Blue Devils to 10-10 overall and 4-2 in NEC play, while the Pioneers fall to 7-15 overall and 2-1 in league play.
The Blue Devils are back in action on Tuesday at CCSU Baseball Field against UMass Lowell at 3:00 p.m.
Sacred Heart opened the scoring in the bottom of the fourth. Following back-to-back singles with one out, freshman Ron Grant got a strikeout for the second out, but Jake Friar would single to drive in Keith Klebart and make it 1-0.
CCSU would get the run back in the fifth. Freshman Chris Kanios and junior Dean Lockery hit consecutive singles with one out. Junior Ryan Costello drew a walk to load the bases and classmate Dylan Maher followed with a ground out to bring home a run and tie the score, 1-1.
The Pioneers put runners on second and third with one out in the fifth. CCSU got a grounder to first and Maher made a smart play to catch the runner on third in a rundown and force the out at home. A fly out to right field ended the SHU threat.
Central managed to push across a run to take a lead in the seventh. Senior Franklin Jennings led off the inning with a single to right field. Kanios followed with an infield single to the left side that moved Jennings to third base. Lockery lofted a sacrifice fly to left field to score Jennings and make it 2-1.
Sacred Heart, which left 10 runners on base in the game, would load the bases with two outs in the eighth, but junior Cody Brown got a pop up to end the inning. Junior Nick Plachno would record three outs on three pitches in the eighth and then retired the Pioneers in order in the ninth for his first save of the year.
Grant started for CCSU and finished with a line of 5.0 innings pitches and one run allowed on six hits. He struck out three and walked one. Brown came on in relief to pick up his second win of the year.
Kanios collected three hits for CCSU, while Lockery and Maher each drove in a run.
Baylor Sundahl went 6.0 innings for SHU. He allowed two runs on nine hits and took the loss. Anthony Capozziello had two hits for the Pioneers.
The Blue Devils are back in action on Tuesday at CCSU Baseball Field against UMass Lowell.