Strong Pitching Carries Baseball in Doubleheader Sweep at Wagner Saturday

The Central Connecticut baseball team got a pair of strong pitching performances to sweep a Northeast Conference doubleheader at Wagner on Saturday in Richmond County Bank Ballpark. Junior Brandon Fox tossed seven shutout innings in a 3-1 win in game one, before senior Patrick Mitchell hurled a complete-game shutout with 13 strikeouts in a 5-0 win in game two. The wins improve Central to 21-18 overall and 11-7 in the Northeast Conference, while Wagner slides to 15-27 overall and 8-13 in the NEC.

The Blue Devils are back in action on Tuesday, May 7 at Hartford in Dunkin' Donuts Park.

GAME 1: CCSU 3, Wagner 1
Fox came out with the win in game one after tossing 7.0 innings, scattering seven hits with a walk and two strikeouts. The Blue Devils pushed across all the offense he would need with a run in the second inning and two more in the fourth.

Central drew a pair of walks in the second to put runners on first and second with one out. A throwing error at second would allow junior Buddy Dewaine to move to third and he would come across to score on another error to make it 1-0. 

In the fourth, sophomore Peyton Stephens and junior Chris Kanios each singled to lead off the inning. Sophomore Matt Bertochi would collect the third straight CCSU hit to begin the frame and drove in Stephens to make it 2-0. Kanios moved to third on a fielder's choice before scoring on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Sam Loda to make it 3-0.

That was all the support Fox would need as he did not allow a hit until there was one out in the third inning. He only allowed two runners to reach third base while he was in the game, one of those reached third with two outs in the seventh and would be left stranded.

The Seahawks' only run came in the eighth when Freddy Sabido hit a solo homerun with two outs. 

Fox improved to 2-4 on the season with the win, while senior Jared Gallagher came on and threw 2.0 innings to pick up his fifth save. He recorded four strikeouts.

Sophomore TT Bowens recorded two of CCSU's seven hits in the game. 

GAME 2: CCSU 5, Wagner 0
Mitchell topped Fox's game one outing by firing his second complete game of the season. Mitchell struck out 13 hitters and allowed just five basehits with a walk and two hit batters in 9.0 innings of work.

CCSU opened the scoring with a run in the third inning when Bertochi and freshman Dylan Sanchez reached base to begin the inning. A walk to Bowens would load the bases and another walk to junior Dave Matthews would force in a run to make it 1-0.

Central tacked on two runs in the seventh on a two-run homerun by Matthews to make it 3-0 and added two unearned runs in the ninth to round out the scoring.

Mitchell would retire eight consecutive hitters twice throughout the game and did not allow a Wagner runner to reach second base until the eighth inning. The Seahawks would load the bases with two outs in the ninth, but Mitchell protected his shutout by striking out the final batter of the game and improved to 5-3 on the season.

Across his last two starts, Mitchell has gone 2-0 and allowed just one run in 17.0 innings of work, while recording 16 strikeouts and allowing just 11 hits.

Matthews finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Kanios added three hits and Sanchez added two hits for CCSU which had 12 hits as a team in the game.

Central is back in action on Tuesday, May 7, with a game against Hartford at Dunkin' Donuts Park in a 10:30 a.m. start.