By Kenny Barto and Chris McLaughlin
The Blue Devils were unable to take advantage on home turf against last place Farleigh Dickinson, a visit that resulted in a split series.
With the top four teams making the NEC tournament, it was a chance for the fourth place Blue Devils to put more wins on the board against the then 6-26 (3-13 NEC) Knights.
“This is where we needed to pile up some wins,” said head coach Charlie Hickey. “But we came out with a split, which wasn’t optimal, but they came out with some guys that got hits, pitchers who threw strikes, and they just played good baseball.”
The Blue Devils dropped game one of the series 7-5 on Thursday. Though starting pitcher Todd Savatsky gave up six runs, only three were earned, as costly errors allowed FDU to score. Savatsky pitched into the eighth inning, giving the Blue Devils an opportunity to save its pitchers for the rest of the series.
“Todd [Savatsky] had great command, even with the 25 mph wind, he did enough to give us the opportunity to win, but if you play enough of these games they will go either way,” Hickey said.
Fairleigh Dickinson struck first with an RBI single in the opening inning before Mitch Wells tied it up in the bottom half. The Knights picked up three more in the third inning off Savatsky, but only one run was earned. Once again the Blue Devils were there to match in the bottom of the inning when Pat Epps hit a two-run RBI double and Sean Miller-Jones drove him in on a sac fly. FDU pushed two more across in the fourth, when the wind turned a routine fly ball into a two-run single.
With the lead in hand, FDU was able to maintain it the remainder of the game. The Blue Devils were able to cut the lead to one in the fifth with a leadoff triple from Jake Matuszak that turned into a run because of a throwing error from the cut-off man.
CCSU had another opportunity in the seventh, but FDU left fielder Joe Martino threw consecutive runners out at home plate, preventing the Blue Devils from tying. The Knights tacked on one more in the ninth and though the Blue Devils got a man on base, a double play ended the game.
The Blue Devils went into Friday’s doubleheader needing to put up two wins, and the two aces, Dave Krasnowiecki and Nick Neumann, earned victories for CCSU.
In game one, Krasnowiecki went the distance and allowed just one hit, although he surrendered six base runners on four walks and a hit by pitch. His performance earned him the NEC co-pitcher of the week. Nuemann followed suit with his own complete game, but gave up three runs on six hits while striking out seven.
“You know, I really do get on them all week to make sure there prepared for their one day to pitch,” said Hickey. “But, I really can’t complain today, Neumann got out of trouble early, and ran into some trouble late, but both him and [Krasnowiecki] were great today.”
In game one, CCSU’s only offense was a Matuszak sacrifice fly and a Miller-Jones RBI double that scored Epps. After Krasnowiecki’s performance, the score stood at just 2-0.
Game two saw much more offense, although CCSU was down 1-0 until the fourth, the final score read 7-3 in favor of the Blue Devils. Dylan Delacruz led off with a triple, followed by a Wells RBI double to left center. Wells would advance to third on an Epps fly out, and was then driven in on a Miller-Jones sacrifice fly.
CCSU followed with five runs in the fifth, led off by Anthony Turgeon doubling to left field, one of his three hits in the game, and was promptly driven in by Tyler McIntyre in the next at-bat. Matuszak advanced the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt after Andy Lalli singled. Delacruz followed with another sacrifice fly for the Blue Devils, which led to Wells earning a base on balls. Epps would drive in the final two runs of the game with a line drive double to right center field, one of his three hits that went the other way in the doubleheader.
“I think it was last week that I saw him get a hit the other way,” said Hickey. “I made it a point to coach [Paul] LaBella to try to work with him this week on going the other way, and it ended up working out.”
Game two wouldn’t be so kind to the Blue Devils, as the team blew a five-run lead that they had going into the fifth inning. Coach Hickey started his best bullpen arm, Harry Glynne, in place of the struggling starter Tom Coughlin. Glynne was perfect through four, but gave up a hit in the fifth.
FDU made it 5-1 after the fifth, but put up a seven spot on the scoreboard in the sixth. Hickey made a tough decision to keep Glynne in the game and he ended up facing five batters in the sixth, giving up four hits, and was tagged with three earned runs in the inning. The Knights added three more in the eighth off of Josh Ingham to give them the 11-6 lead.
CCSU saw a huge offensive performance from catcher Lalli, who went 4-for-4 with three RBI’s.
“That was surprising to say the least,” said Hickey. “If you told me yesterday Andy Lalli was going to go 4-for-4 today, I wouldn’t have believed you, but he really came through today and did a great job seeing the ball at the plate.”
The Blue Devils will stay in fourth place in the Northeast Conference. The Blue Devils will host UConn, who has two potential first round draft picks, including New Britain native George Springer. CCSU will return to conference action at Quinnipiac next weekend.
