Baseball Rally Comes Up Short at Siena

The Central Connecticut baseball team fell at Siena, 5-4, on Tuesday afternoon at Siena Field. The Blue Devils scored a run in the ninth inning, but were unable to score another to extend the game. Central slips to 19-14 overall on the year, while Siena is now 13-18-1.

CCSU is back in action on Friday when it opens a four-game Northeast Conference series against Bryant.

The Saints opened the scoring with two runs in the first inning. Dan Swain led off with a walk and stole second. With one out, Joe Drpich homered to right field to make it 2-0. 

Central took advantage of a Siena error in the fourth to take a lead. Junior Dylan Maher singled with two outs in the fourth inning and moved over to second base following an error after junior Ron Jackson put the ball in play. Junior Nick Garland followed with a double to bring home two runs and tie the game, 2-2. Junior Dean Lockery followed with a single through the right side to bring home Garland and put CCSU on top, 3-2.

Siena regained the lead with two runs in the seventh inning. A pair of hit batters to open the inning put runners on first and second, but the Blue Devils quickly got two outs. Swain would double down the left field line to score two runs and make it 4-3. 

The Saints tacked on an insurance run in the eighth with an RBI single from Patrick Ortland to push the lead to 5-3.

In the Blue Devils' ninth, freshman Chris Kanios got things started by reaching on an error with one out. Junior Ryan Costello followed with a single through the right side to put runners on the corners. Following a fly out, junior Mitch Guilmette delivered a two-out single through the middle to score Kanios and make it 5-4. Freshman Buddy Dewaine would walk to load the bases, but the Saints got a ground out to end the CCSU rally and close out the game. 

Lockery, Guilmette and Dewaine each had two hits for CCSU. Garland doubled in two runs as the Blue Devils finished with nine hits as a team.

Junior Nick Plachno allowed two runs on one hit in his inning of work and took the loss for Central. The Blue Devils used four pitchers on the day with sophomore Tom Curtin tossing a team-high 4.0 innings on the day. He allowed just three hits, while striking out five.

Nick Bruno got the win for the Saints. He tossed 3.1 shutout innings and gave up no hits, while striking out two.

Swain finished with two hits, two RBIs and a run scored to lead the Siena offense.

CCSU is back in action on Friday when it opens a four-game Northeast Conference series against Bryant.