Baseball Splits Saturday Doubleheader With Mount St. Mary's

Central Connecticut and Mount St. Mary's split its Northeast Conference baseball doubleheader on Saturday at CCSU Baseball Field. The Blue Devils took the first game, 9-4, before the Mountaineers took the second game, 6-3. CCSU recognized its 11 seniors prior to the doubleheader.

Central stands at 15-25 overall and 9-15 in the NEC after Saturday's results, while the Mount is now 19-25 overall and 13-11 in the NEC.

Game 1: CCSU 9, MSM 4
The Blue Devils rallied for the win in the day's first win, using a five-run sixth inning to take a 9-4 victory.

Central opened the scoring with a run in the first. Senior Dean Lockery singled to lead off and moved to third on a well-executed hit-and-run by sophomore Chandler Debrosse. Lockery would score on a double-play groundout to make it 1-0.

The Mountaineers opened the second inning with three straight hits and a single by Andrew Malone tied it 1-1. The Mount would get two more runs in the inning, using a single by Brendan Dabagian and ground out by Jared Urban to take a 3-1 lead.

The Blue Devils would rally in the fourth, scoring a pair of runs. Sophomore Buddy Dewaine walked to lead off and moved to second on a single by freshman Peyton Stephens. Senior Andrew Hinckley followed with a sac bunt to move the runners up before freshman Jake Siracusa followed with a single to left to drive in Dewaine and make it 3-2. Senior Sean Udris pinch-hit and would hit a pop fly that got lost in the sun and fell in for a single to score Stephens and tie the game.

Lockery led off the fifth with a double and moved to third on a one-out single by senior Nick Garland. Stephens followed with a sac fly to drive in Lockery and put CCSU ahead, 4-3.

Central got all the offensive cushion it needed in the sixth scoring five runs. Freshman Matt Bertochi was hit by a pitch and stole second with one out. Following the second out, Lockery was walkeed to get to Debrosse who singled to right driving in a run to make it 5-3. Junior Justin Sportman would pinch run and came around to score, along with Lockery, after Garland and Dewaine hit back-to-back RBI singles to push the lead to four runs, before Stephens followed with a two-run double to make it 9-3.

The Mountaineers would get a run in the seventh for the final score.

Stephens went 2-for-2 with three RBIs and a run scored, while Garland, Lockery, Debrosse and Siracusa each added two hits. Lockery scored three runs as well as the Blue Devils collected 12 hits as a team.

The Blue Devils' bullpen threw 5.1 innings of one-run ball in the win. Junior Patrick Mitchell tossed 2.1 shutout innings, while sophomore Andrew Braun got the win after tossing a clean fifth inning. Junior Jared Gallagher tossed two innings for his third save of the year. 

Game 2: MSM 6, CCSU 3
Mount St. Mary's scored three runs in the top of the seventh to win the second game of the day

The Blue Devils fell into a three-run hole in the first three innings before getting two runs in the bottom of the third. Freshman Jeremy Sagun and sophomore Chris Kanios led off with back-to-back singles and heads up base-running put them both in scoring position. Consecutive ground outs by Lockery and Debrosse would plate both leadoff runners to cut the deficit to 3-2.

Central got a leadoff double in the sixth from Garland and a single by Dewaine pushed him to third. Stephens followed with a sac fly to bring home his fourth RBI of the day and tie the game, 3-3.

The Mountaineers would load the bases with one out in the seventh for Tommy Savastio who singled home to runs to break the tie and make it 5-3. Mount would have the bases loaded again with two outs and a walk to Randall Minogue would bring home another run. 

Brenden Kennedy would retire CCSU in order in the seventh to close out the complete game. 

Lockery had two more hits in the second game as CCSU had seven as a team. He also had an RBI. Braun would allow just one hit over his first 3.2 innings after coming on in relief for Central, but he would take the loss in the second game. 

CCSU recognized 11 seniors before the day's first game. Along with Garland, Hinckley, Lockery and Udris, classmates Kyle Anderson, Mitch Guilmette, Dylan Maher, Brett Susi and Stanley Wolpiuk were honored. Sportman and Bryant Morander were also recognized as they are seniors academically.