by Daniel Fappiano
As the Blue Devils make their way to the end of the regular season and potentially into the Northeast Conference Tournament, they faced two out of conference foes in Holy Cross and Boston. While two out of the three games went into extra innings, Central wasn’t able to come away with a victory, losing all three match-ups.
In game one, the Blue Devils took on the Crusaders of Holy Cross, losing 2-0 in nine innings. With the score tied 0-0 heading into the ninth inning, Holy Cross’ Taylor Wahler and Bella Jankowski hit RBI singles to lead their team to victory.
While senior Emily Sargent had a strong game for Central, pitching eight innings scoreless and allowing just three hits prior to the ninth, the Blue Devils struggled at the plate. CCSU mustered just five hits, with two of them coming from the bat of Brittany McNulla.
In their first game against Boston University, Central again struggled with the bats, scoring just one run on five hits. However, unlike the first game, the Terriers were able to put up runs in regulation. Boston plated 10, including six in the sixth inning to come away with the 10-1 victory.
For the Terriers, three different players had RBIs including Maddie Killebrew who had a home run and five individual RBIs. As for Central, Gianna Hathaway went 2-3 with a double, the Blue Devils only extra-base hit in the game.
Central seemed to be on their way to a win in the second match-up. On the heels of a six-run sixth inning, the Blue Devils took a 9-8 lead. But the Terriers were able to score a run in the bottom of the sixth before Kaitlin Sahlinger hit a three-run walk-off home run to give Boston the 12-9 victory, sweeping the doubleheader.
Six different players had RBIs for Boston, including Killebrew who again went hard and drove in three. Kaitlin Patterson shined on offense for the Blue Devils, going 3-3 with a triple and four runs batted in.
Central now sits 14-22 on the season and 5-3 in conference play with 10 games remaining. Currently, CCSU sits in fourth, the final playoff position, with their 5-3 NEC record.
They’ll have an opportunity to climb up the standings when they’ll take on St. Francis (PA) and Robert Morris after a game against UConn next.