Baseball Rallies for 7-5 Win at Mount St. Mary's
The teams conclude the series on Saturday with a single game at 12:00 p.m.
Central Connecticut scored four runs in the ninth inning to win 7-5 at Mount St. Mary's in Northeast Conference baseball action on Friday afternoon. Junior Dylan Maher devlivered a two-run double with two outs in the Blue Devils' final at bat to provide the winning hit.
CCSU improves to 18-13 on the season with the win and 9-3 in NEC play. The Mount falls to 4-24 overall and 2-10 in the NEC.
The Blue Devils trailed 5-3 entering their final at bat. Senior Tyler Coleman drew a lead off walk and moved to second on a single by junior Ryan Costello. Freshman TT Bowens singled down the left field line to drive in a run and cut the deficit to 5-4. Following a double-play, with Costello on third base, freshman Chris Kanios hit a single to drive in a run and mtie the game, 5-5. Kanios would steal second and senior Franklin Jennings drew a walk. A wild pitch moved the runners to second and third base before Maher doubled to center field to drive in two runs and give CCSU a 7-5 lead.
Sophomore Patrick Mitchell retired the Mountaineers in order to close out the game and get his second save of the season.
Mount St. Mary's took an early lead with a two run single in the bottom of the third inning. Patrick Causa drove in a pair of runs with one out in the third to give Mount a 2-0 lead.
The Blue Devils got a run back in the fourth when Maher hit a sacrifice fly to bring home junior Mitch Guilmette to make it 2-1.
The Mountaineers would push across two more runs in the fourth inning. Jared Urban singled home a run to make it 3-1. With runners on first and third, Urban would be thrown out stealing second base, but Brendan Dabagian would be able to come home to make it 4-1.
CCSU got a run back in the sixth when Kanios walked and stole second before coming around to score on an error to make it 4-2.
The Mount got the run back in the sixth inning with a solo homerun by Zach Hostetter to make it 5-2.
Junior Dean Lockery opened the seventh inning with a walk for Central and moved to second on a single by Coleman. A ground out would move Lockery to third base, before a two-out error allowed him to score to make it 5-3 and set up the ninth-inning rally.
The Blue Devils had eight different players collect a hit. Kanios went 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI. Maher finished with three RBIs and a double.
Freshman Ron Grant started for CCSU and was charged with four runs in 3.1 innings of work. He struck out three, while walking one. Freshman Michael Delease got the win, allowing just one run in 4.2 innings of work. He struck out four and walked just one.
Zach Call took the loss for Mount St. Mary's. He allowed five runs, four earned, in 3.0 innings and gave up six hits. The Mountaineers had 10 hits as a team, with four players collecting two hits.
The teams conclude the series on Saturday with a single game at 12:00 p.m.