Baseball Bounces Back With Big Win over Brown Wednesday

After having its win streak snapped a day earlier, Central Connecticut bounced back on Wednesday with a 17-2 win over Brown at CCSU Baseball Field. The Blue Devils pounded out 22 hits as a team and had five players with two or more hits en route to their fourth win in five games. Senior Dean Lockery led the attack, going 5-of-6 with six RBIs and four runs scored, including a three-run homerun.

The Blue Devils improve to 7-9 overall with the win, while Brown slips to 6-10.

In addition to Lockery's five hits, senior Mitch Guilmette and sophomore Buddy Dewaine each went 3-for-4 at the plate. Sophomore Chris Kanios added a pair of hits, as did freshman Jake Siracusa.

The Bears got an RBI ground out by Sam Grigo in the first inning to take an early lead, but the CCSU pitchers would stifle their bats from there. Junior Patrick Mitchell started and allowed just two hits in his three innings of work. He also struck out three, while walking none. 

Central would break the game open with a six-run third inning. Freshman Jay Devito led off with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice by Kanios. The Blue Devils would then have seven straight batters reach base. Lockery, Guilmette, Dewaine and Siracusa would record four straight hits, each driving in a run to make it 4-1. Senior Nick Garland would reach base on a catcher's interference to load the bases. Freshman Sam Loda was hit by a pitch to force in another run and then a wild pitch would allow the runners to advance, bringing home a run to make it 6-1.

With runners on second and third in the fourth, Dewaine hit a hard grounder to third that brought home one run. A throwing error on the play allowed another run to score as Central pushed the lead to 8-1.

Loda led off the fifth inning for CCSU by reaching on a hit by pitch. Kanios followed with a one-out single to set the table for Lockery who hit his first homer of the season, going over the fence in right to clear the bases and make it 11-1.

Central added a three-run sixth inning, with Kanios driving in two runs and Lockery another. CCSU would round out its scoring in the eighth with Lockery, senior Dylan Maher and freshman Matt Bertochi hitting three straight RBI singles.

Grigo had an RBI double for Brown in the top of the eighth to account for the Bears' only other run of the day.

Senior Brett Susi pitched two shutout innings, allowing just two hits, while sophomore Andrew Braun also tossed 2.0 innings, allowing just one hit with a strikeout and a walk. Freshman Matt Shane and junior Tom Curtin pitched the final two innings as the Central pitchers combined to strikeout five on the day, while allowing just seven hits, two runs and two walks.

Central is back in action on Friday, March 30, with a 3:00 p.m. game at the University of Connecticut.