Baseball Downs Sacred Heart in Series Opener on Thursday

The Central Connecticut baseball team opened its Northeast Conference series against Sacred Heart with a 5-2 win on Thursday in New Britain, CT.  The Blue Devils scored three runs in the first inning and got solid pitching from Dominic Niman and Vincent Spizzoucco to down the Pioneers.

Central and Sacred Heart will play at 1:00 p.m. on Friday.

GAME INFORMATION | BOX SCORE
Score: CCSU 5, Sacred Heart 2
Pitching Record: W: Niman (6-0) | L: Babuschak (1-3) | Sv: - -
Records: CCSU (16-5, 12-1 NEC), SHU (13-13, 8-5 NEC)
Location: CCSU Baseball Field | New Britain, CT

KEY MOMENTS

• Central opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. Dan Hussey and Hunter Pasqualini led off with consecutive singles. Two batters later, Ramon Jimenez hit a liner back at the pitcher. The throw to third on the play went into left field and allowed Hussey to score. Jeff Nicol would follow with a single to right field that drove in Pasqualini and Jimenez to make it 3-0.
• The Pioneers got a leadoff homer from Sam Mongelli in the third, but that was all they got against Niman who battled through 7.0 innings of work. He would leave nine SHU runners on the bases and induced a pair of inning-ending double plays enroute to a league-best sixth win.
• CCSU tacked on two runs in the seventh. After Elliot Good singled and Brady Short drew a walk to open the inning, an error would allow Good to score and Short would cross home on a double play to make it 5-1.
• Spizzoucco came on in the eighth and was nearly flawless in two innings of work. After a pair of strikeouts in the ninth, SHU managed to scratch out a run with back-to-back hits before Spizzoucco got a strikeout to end the game.

NOTES

• The Blue Devils have won six straight against the Pioneers and are 56-42 in the series.
• Niman is 6-0 on the season and has won seven straight decisions dating back to last season. He scattered eight hits and recorded six strikeouts.
• Hussey had a pair of hits in the game and extended his hitting streak to 15 games.
• Pasqualini's single in the first inning was his sixth straight at bat with a single over the last two games.
• Good went 2-for-4 and scored a run.

UP NEXT

Central and Sacred Heart will play at 1:00 p.m. on Friday.

Follow @CCSUBlueDevils on Twitter and CCSUBlueDevils.com for updates.