Baseball Falls to Wagner in Pitcher's Duel Saturday, 4-2

The Central Connecticut baseball team fell to Wagner, 4-2, on Saturday in a Northeast Conference contest at CCSU Baseball Field. The game was dominated by pitching until a pair of late unearned runs proved to be the difference. Junior Brandon Fox started for Central and went 8.0 innings, allowing just four hits and a pair of earned runs. 

The loss drops Central to 9-9 overall and 2-3 in the NEC, while Wagner is 7-15 overall and 3-2 in the NEC.

The Blue Devils and Seahawks wrap up the series on Sunday. Due to the weather forecast, the game time has been moved to 11:00 a.m.

The game opened with Anthony Pecora hitting a leadoff homerun to give Wagner a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Central would quickly tie the game in its half of the first. Junior Chandler Debrosse would single and move to third on a groundout and a wild pitch. A groundout by junior Dave Matthews would score Debrosse to tie the game, 1-1.

After allowing the leadoff homerun, Fox would surrender just three more hits the rest of the way, while striking out three. He retired eight straight at one point and did not allow a runner past first base until the sixth inning.

In the sixth, Pecora led off with a walk and would round the bases two batters later on a triple by Joe Silvestrone to make it 2-1. 

Neil Abbatiello started for Wagner and after allowing the run in the first he would throw seven shutout frames, while scattering six hits with four walks and three strikeouts on the day in 8.0 innings of work. CCSU would put runners on first and second in the second, fourth and sixth innings, but Abbatiello worked out of the jams each time.

Wagner padded its lead in the eighth inning. A double by Will Johnson with one out was followed by Silvestrone being hit by a pitch. A ground out would put them on second and third with two outs before a CCSU error allowed them to both score and make it 4-1.

Central would try to rally in the ninth with back-to-back walks by sophomore Jake Siracusa and freshman Dan Covino to open the inning. A ground out would put runners on the corners with one out, but a sacrifice fly by Debrosse to score Siracusa would be all the Blue Devils could muster.

Junior Buddy Dewaine went 2-for-4 for CCSU which had six hits as a team. Debrosse and Matthews each had a hit and RBI on the day.

Silvestrone had two of Wagner's four hits. John LaPointe pitched 1.0 inning and got the save throwing a clean ninth.