Baseball Takes Series-Opener From Wagner, 7-3, on Friday

The Central Connecticut baseball team opened its weekend series against Wagner with a 7-3 win on Friday at CCSU Baseball Field. Sophomore Brandon Fox turned in a strong outing on the mound, while freshman Christian Layne had four hits and classmate Jeremy Sagun drove in two runs in the win. 

With the win, CCSU improves to 9-15 overall and 6-5 in the Northeast Conference, while Wagner slips to 21-11 overall and 9-2 in the NEC.

The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m.

Central scored the first four runs of the game to take control. Sophomore Chris Kanios singled and stole second before scoring on sophomore Buddy Dewaine's single in the first to make it 1-0. Dewaine would score on a ground-rule double by senior Nick Garland to make it 2-0 in the inning.

Senior Andrew Hinckley was hit by a pitch to lead off the second and scooted to third on Layne's first hit of the day. Sagun followed with a sac fly to drive in a run and make it 3-0. 

In the third, freshman Peyton Stephens walked with two outs. Hinckley singled up the middle to move him to second before Layne singled through the right side to plate Stephens and make it a four-run lead.

Fox faced just one batter over the minimum through five innings. Wagner finally got a hit to lead off the sixth when Will Johnson singled, as the Seahawks would string together three straight hits. Nick Mascelli's base hit would drive in Johnson to make it 4-1.

The Blue Devils came back in the bottom of the inning with a walk by Hinckley and double by Layne to start the inning. Back-to-back sac flies by Sagun and senior Dean Lockery would bring home two runs to make it 6-1.

The Seahawks threatened in the seventh getting two runs. Anthony Godino opened the inning with a two-bagger to end Fox's day. Kyle Cala hit a one-out double to score Godino and came around on a double by Joe Silvestrone to make it 6-3.

CCSU would tack on a run in the eighth after Kanios drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs to make it 7-3 and junior Jared Gallagher would pick up the two-inning save, ending the game with a 1-6-3 double play.

Fox went 6.0 innings and improved to 1-2 on the season, allowing two runs on four hits. He walked one, while striking out two. Gallagher allowed two hits in 2.0 innings for his second save of the year.

The Blue Devils finished with 10 hits as a team. Layne went 4-for-4, while Kanios added a pair of hits with a run and an RBI. Sagun drove in two runs, while Hinckley scored three runs and went 1-for-1.

Eric Ligda took the loss for Wagner, allowing six runs on nine hits in 6.0 innings. He walked two and struck out two, while going to 4-2 on the year.