By Kenny Barto
Going into Sunday’s action against Fairfield, the Blue Devils boasted a seven-game winning streak, including two wins against the Stags in the two days prior.
“It’s nice to get a streak like that, but some of it had to do with the format,” head coach Charlie Hickey said. “We were only playing one game a day, and we didn’t have to regroup for a doubleheader, so it was a little easier on us.”
With a 16-2 win and 5-4 win against Holy Cross and Stony Brook respectively, the Blue Devils traveled down to Fairfield on Friday and put their ace, Dave Krasnowiecki on the mound. The lefty battled through six innings, giving up two runs, seven hits, and seven strikeouts. Krasnowiecki was taken out with Fairfield leading 2-0, but the Blue Devil offense finally came alive in the seventh.
JP Sportman reached on a walk, followed by Dylan Delacruz single through the left side. Tyler Caserta had a sacrifice bunt, which set up A.J. lowers to hit a sacrifice fly to bring in the Blue Devils’ first run of the game.
The 2-1 lead would hold up until the ninth, when Sean Miller-Jones homered to left field. Back-to-back strikeouts by JP Sportman and Dylan Delacruz gave way to Caserta working a walk. With AJ Lowers at the plate, Caserta stole second, followed by another walk to Lowers. Caserta’s awareness on the base paths yet again, as he stole second, which also advanced Lowers to second. Jake Matuszak came through in a huge spot, and drove both runners in with an RBI single. Josh Ingham would throw a scoreless ninth for his fourth save of the year.
In game two, Nick Neumann and Harry Glynne combined for a nine hit shutout. Neumann went only five innings, giving up five hits, and struck out seven. Glynne went four, giving up four hits, and struck out five.
“It was a tough day to pitch out there on Saturday,” said Hickey. “It was a chilly, windy day, and Neumann couldn’t go as far as we wanted him to, but we got lucky that both Nick and Harry were able to make some good pitches and shut them down.”
CCSU only had five hits on the day to net three runs. Anthony Turgeon homered in the third inning, while Mitch Wells had an RBI double, and Miller-Jones had an RBI single.
Fairfield returned the favor on Sunday, however, as another windy and chilly day troubled the CCSU offense. Fairfield’s offense started off quick against Tom Coughlin, as four doubles in the first inning netted four runs for the Stags. Fairfield’s Scott Gussaroff, a graduate student, tossed eight innings of scoreless baseball, giving up only six hits and struck out six.
“He just came out strong and straight up beat us today,” said Hickey. “He definitely stayed in longer than we thought we would, and we just couldn’t get anything going today.”
Roy Natoli came in after only two outs in the first. Natoli threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings while giving up only two hits and striking out three. Jason Foster, Donny Crook, and Normand Gosselin all contributed to 8 1/3 innings of relief that only yielded one more run for the Stags.
“We’re doing good things out there, but we have to get better,” said Hickey. “Even though we get shut out, it gives us things to work on. You think you have everything figured out, then things like this happen.”
Tom Coughlin’s inconsistency on the mound may lead to a change in the fourth starter. Roy Natoli’s impressive showing in relief may make him a top contender for the spot.
“That’s definitely something we need to look at,” said Hickey. “Although sometimes it’s easy to pitch when you’re down four runs, he still went in and pitched a great game.”
The Blue Devils will continue their out of conference schedule against UMass on Tuesday, and will enter conference play again on Fairleigh Dickinson that will take place starting Thursday at 3 P.M. due to the holiday on Sunday.