Baseball Drops Friday Doubleheader to Delaware State

The Central Connecticut baseball team came up short to Delaware State in both ends of a doubleheader in Northeast Conference action on Friday in New Britain, CT. The Hornets scored an eighth-inning run to win game one, 5-4, while the Blue Devils had a furious rally come up just short and fell, 15-13, in game two.

The series concludes on Saturday with a 1:00 p.m. first pitch. The Blue Devils will recognize their senior class prior to the game.

GAME 1 INFORMATION | BOX SCORE

Score:  CCSU 4, DELAWARE STATE 5
Pitching Record: W: Head (2-0) | L: Munn (2-5)  | Save:  Lane (1) 
Records: CCSU (17-23, 16-14 NEC), DSU (22-24, 19-12 NEC)
Location: CCSU Baseball Field | New Britain, CT

KEY MOMENTS

• Delaware State took advantage of an error and three walks in the third inning to push across three runs to open the scoring.
• Central would fight back in the fourth inning and drew a pair of walks to open the frame. Elliot Good would drive in the first run, before Brady Short and Gianno Merlonghi hit back-to-back run-scoring singles to tie the game, 3-3.
• DSU would load the bases with no outs in the top of the sixth. A hit batsmen brought in a run to make it 4-3, but CCSU got out of the inning with a strikeout and a double-play.
• The Blue Devils tied the game in the bottom of the seventh after Jeff Nicol hit a one-out double. He scored on the next batter when Colby Brouillette singled to centerfield and tied the game.
• In the top of the eighth, the Hornets put a runner on first following an error with two outs. Kodai Yaoita followed with a double to put runners on second and third and a wild pitch brought in the go-ahead run.
• The Blue Devils would get a runner to second base with no outs in the home half of the inning, but Michael Lane would get the final six outs for the Hornets.

GAME 2 INFORMATION | BOX SCORE

Score:  CCSU 13, DELAWARE STATE 15
Pitching Record: W: Hatch (1-3)  | L: Garofalo (1-2)  | Save:  Gordon (1) 
Records: CCSU (17-24, 16-15 NEC), DSU (22-24, 20-12 NEC)
Location: CCSU Baseball Field | New Britain, CT

KEY MOMENTS

• Delaware State would bat around in the second inning and score three more runs in the third to build a 9-0 lead.
• CCSU would get on the board with a four-run third inning. With two outs and a runner on second, Joe Rios would hit a ground-rule double for the first run and start a run of five straight batters reaching safely. Michael Torniero would single in two runs and Kyle Gordon drove in another to make it 9-4.
• The Hornets would get one run back in the fourth before loading the bases in the fifth inning. Yaoita would hit a homerun to right field to clear the bases and make it 14-4.
• The Blue Devils would begin to claw back into the game after DSU added a run in the top of the sixth. In the bottom of the inning, the first two batters got on base and moved to second and third. Merlonghi would plate the first run. Following a walk with one out and two runners on, Jeff Nicol doubled to left field to plate two more runs before he would score on a single by Josh Taylor to make it 15-8.
• CCSU batted around in the eighth inning and Short had an RBI-double and Hunter Pasqualini hit a sacrifice fly to bring in the first two runs. An RBI-single by Nicol plated another before he would score on Elliot Good's bases-clearing homerun to left-center to make it 15-13.
• Pasqualini would double with o ne out in the ninth to bring the tying runs to the plate, but the Hornets would escape following two groundouts.

DOUBLEHEADER NOTES

• CCSU leads the all-time series, 7-5.
• Brady Short had three hits and an RBI in each game of the twinbill.
• Central banged out 15 hits in game two, with each batter collecting at least one hit and one RBI.
• Good hit his fourth homerun of the season.
• Nicol would have four hits on the day and drove in three runs in game two.
• Kyle Gordon had three hits and two runs in the second game.
• TJ Wainwright threw 3.0 innings in relief in game two. He allowed one run on three hits with two strikeouts.
• Drew Munn allowed just one earned run in 5.0 innings in the first game. He struck out two and gave up just three hits.

UP NEXT

The series concludes on Saturday with a 1:00 p.m. first pitch. The Blue Devils will recognize their senior class prior to the game.

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