Baseball Rolls By Fairleigh Dickinson in Weekend Opener, 17-3

The Central Connecticut baseball team won its seventh straight Northeast Conference game with a comfortable 17-3 win over Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday at CCSU Baseball Field. The Blue Devils tied a season-high for runs scored, while banging out 16 hits. CCSU improves to 22-19 overall and 12-7 in the NEC with the win.

The Blue Devils and Knights will play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 12:00 p.m. Central will honor its four seniors before the first game of the day.

Central scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning to take the lead. Junior Dave Matthews and sophomore Jake Siracusa each knocked in a run to help the Blue Devils take advantage of two FDU errors and build a 3-0 lead.

After an FDU run in the top of the inning, CCSU would break the game open in the bottom of the fourth when it batted around and sent 16 batters to the plate in the frame and scored 10 runs on nine hits. After a groundout to open the inning, Siracusa would triple to right-center to begin a stretch of eight straight hits for Central. Sophomores Peyton Stephens, Jay Devito and Matt Bertochi would follow with three straight RBI-doubles. After a bunt single, sophomore Sam Loda hit the Blue Devils' second triple of the inning to drive in two runs. Sophomore TT Bowens would hit a double to plate a run and Matthews followed with a single to score a run.

A pair of walks would load the bases for Devito who collected his second hit of the inning and drove in two more runs. After a walk loaded the bases, junior Chris Kanios was hit by a pitch to bring home another run to make it 13-1.

A two-run homerun by FDU in the top of the sixth was followed by another CCSU run in the bottom of the inning after junior Buddy Dewaine was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a run.

In the Central seventh, Stephens led off with a solo homerun off the scoreboard in left field. Loda would double home a run and Bowens followed with a single to drive in a run and close out the Blue Devils' scoring.

Senior Tom Curtin started for Central and tossed 7.0 innings to get the win. He allowed three runs on nine hits and struck out two. Junior Andrew Braun and freshman Dylan Benton each threw a shutout inning in relief.

Loda finished 3-for-5 with three runs and three runs batted in. Bowens had three hits, while scoring two runs with two RBIs. Devito added two hits, three RBIs and a run scored. All nine CCSU starters scored at least a run in the win and six batters had at least two hits.

The Blue Devils and Knights will wrap the three-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 12:00 p.m.