Baseball Drops Series Opener to Mount St. Mary's on Friday
The Blue Devils will honor their seniors prior to Saturday's doubleheader
The Central Connecticut baseball team fell to Mount St. Mary's in Friday's Northeast Conference series opener, 17-7, at CCSU Baseball Field. Freshman Peyton Stephens drove in three runs for the Blue Devils and senior Andrew Hinckley added two more, but the Mountaineers scored runs in all but two innings to get the win. The series continues on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 p.m.
Central slips to 14-24 overall and 8-14 in the NEC, while Mount moves to 18-24 and 12-10 in the NEC.
CCSU will honor its seniors before Saturday's first game. The teams will play two seven-inning contests.
Hinckley reached base four times on the day and went 2-for-3 with two walks. Senior Nick Garland and sophomore Chandler Debrosse each added two hits for Central.
The Blue Devils took a 3-2 in the bottom of the first. Singles by Debrosse and sophomore Buddy Dewaine put runners on first and second with two outs. Stephens followed with his second homerun of the season to left field to make it 3-2.
The Mountaineers would take control from there. MSM didn't score in the second inning, but would tie it with a run in the third. Randall Minogue drove in Patrick Causa to make it 3-3.
Back-to-back homeruns in the fourth gave the Mount the lead for good. Alex Kriss hit a two-run homer, followed by a solo shot by Causa to make it 6-3.
Mount would go on to score two more in each of the fifth and sixth innings, before the Blue Devils got out of the seventh inning unscathed.
In the bottom of the seventh Debrosse singled with one out and junior Justin Sportman pinch-ran. Garland followed with a double to the gap in left and Sportman motored around from first base to make it 10-4.
The Mountaineers added four runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth before Central would score three runs in their final at bat. A single by senior Dylan Maher drove in senior Dean Lockery and Hinckley would follow with a two-out double to score two more runs. Lockery's run moved him into a tie for 7th on the CCSU career list with 134 runs scored (Phil Rothkugel, 2002-2004).
Sophomore Brandon Fox started for Central, but went just two innings. He allowed three runs and was relieved by senior Kyle Anderson. Anderson allowed two earned runs in two innings and took the loss.
Trey McGough went 6.2 innings for Mount to get the win. He allowed four runs on seven hits with five walks, but did strike out eight. Causa led the Mount offense with five hits and four RBIs.
