Baseball Downs Sacred Heart, 8-4, Saturday
The Blue Devils host the Pioneers at 1:00 p.m. Sunday.
Central Connecticut used a big inning to down Sacred Heart, 8-4, on Saturday in Northeast Conference baseball action at CCSU Baseball Field. The Blue Devils scored four runs in the second inning to take control of the game and banged out 12 hits in the win. Junior TT Bowens had three hits and three RBIs to lead the CCSU offense.
The win improves Central to 13-12 overall and 4-4 in the NEC.
The Blue Devils host the Pioneers at 1:00 p.m. Sunday to close the three-game series.
CCSU trailed 1-0 before responding by batting around in the second inning. Sophomores Sam Loda and Jake Siracusa led off with consecutive singles. The Blue Devils would have the bases loaded with two outs and juniors Chandler Debrosse and Buddy Dewaine each walked to force in runs and make it 2-1. Bowens would follow with a single up the middle to plate two runs and push the Central lead to 4-1.
The Pioneers would cut the deficit to 4-3 with one run in each the third and fourth innings. The Blue Devils got a two-out trip by Kanios in the fifth to score Siracusa and push the lead back to 5-3.
In the sixth, Bowens singled to score Debrosse from second and push the lead 6-3.
Senior Mike Appel came on in relief for CCSU in the fifth and retired five of the first six batters he faced. SHU would get a run off of him in the seventh after three straight singles scored a run to make it 6-4. With the bases loaded and one out, CCSU would get out of the jam by turning a double-play.
Central tacked on insurance runs with sophomore Matt Bertochi hitting an RBI-single in the seventh and Loda hitting a sacrifice fly in the eighth to make it 8-4.
Debrosse added two hits, two runs and an RBI for Central. Siracusa went 2-for-4 with two runs and Kanios had two hits a run and RBI.
Junior Brandon Fox started for CCSU and went 4.0 innings. He had two strikeouts and was charged with three runs. Appel got the win and allowed one run on four hits in 3.0 innings with three strikeouts. Senior Jared Gallagher got the save in 2.0 innings of work. He allowed one hit and struck out one.
Jake Frasca had three hits for the Pioneers, who had 13 hits as a team. Luke Hansen started and took the loss. He allowed four runs in 1.2 innings and walked four with three strikeouts.
The series wraps up on Sunday with a 1:00 p.m. first pitch.