N.A.S.
by Brian O’Neill
Friday afternoon’s gloomy and wet weather didn’t stop the Blue Devils from kicking off a four-game weekend series with Bryant.
In the first game of the series, the Blue Devils fell to the Bulldogs by a score of 15-5 before splitting the Saturday doubleheader with a 2-1 victory in the first game and an 8-0 shutout loss in the second. The team finished the weekend with a comeback 2-run double in the bottom of the ninth to take Sunday’s game 7-6.
“It’s [Bryant] a pretty good team in that dugout,” coach Charlie Hickey said. “They’ve been NEC champions the last two years. They’ve sort of had a little bit of a rebuilding mode with their pitching staff, but they’re a quality team. They’re probably the best team in our conference.”
In their first in-conference home game, the Blue Devils came hot out of the gate with Central’s starting pitcher, Austin Salnitis, striking out the first two batters and forcing the third into a fly out. Offensively, the Blue Devils racked up three runs on three hits in the first, with Ian Glassman, Dominic Severino and Ryan Costello each picking up an RBI. Adding to the offense, leadoff hitter Franklin Jennings stole his 14th base of the season, putting him in first place in the NEC.
After the hot start in the first, the Blue Devils’ bats went cold, recording just two hits from the second inning to the eighth. It wasn’t long until Bryant’s offense found their rhythm, picking up a run in the third and fourth to pull within one, before a seven-run outburst in the fifth, including a three-run home run from Brandon Bingel.
Adding on another two runs in the sixth and four in the ninth, the Blue Devils found themselves on the wrong side of a blowout, down 15-3 in the bottom of the ninth.
Using the bottom of the ninth to give some lesser used players a look, freshman Nick Plachno roped a single into center field, kicking off a four-hit, two-run inning for Central, with Nick Coro and John Lippincott credited with RBIs in the inning. The late game surge brought the final score to 15-5.
“Combined with a rough two weeks in terms of some injuries where we’ve had to rebuild from the ground up, starting four freshman today, and not that that’s awful, but when you start doing that after 20 games, it’s a little bit to get used to,” Hickey said after the loss. “We’ve had three of our top seven pitchers go down to injuries, and that left us shorthanded today. I don’t know if we could’ve contained them all along, but we were winning 3-0, then all the sudden, a close game became a big game, and our offense isn’t built with an older more experienced team like Bryant.”
A strong start in the first game on Saturday by Brett Susi followed by a dominate relief appearance from Kevin Connolly led Central to a 2-1 win in the second game of the series. But the Central bats went cold in game two, getting shutout on just three hits, falling 8-0.
Like Friday’s game, Central had an early 3-0 lead over Bryant, but gave up five runs over the last three innings to find themselves down one heading into the bottom of the ninth. Singles from Costello and Dean Lockery were followed by a double to left field from pinch-hitter Mitch Guilmette to give Central to 7-6 win.
“This is a long weekend,” said Hickey. “We’re going to play 32 innings, and you’ve gotta keep battling and keep playing because it’s a battle of pitching staffs. And you’ve gotta keep approaching it and keep playing the game down to every out.”
After splitting their four game series versus Mount St. Mary’s last weekend, the Blue Devils host Fairleigh Dickinson for another four game series this weekend, starting with a 3 p.m. game on Friday.