The Central Connecticut baseball team was in desperate need of a bounce back this weekend as they took on Mount St. Mary’s. Last weekend, the Blue Devils were outscored 38-10 in three games by a Bryant team who hit 13 home runs.

And bounce back they did, sweeping the Mountaineers in a three-game series on the road.

After scoring just 10 runs in the three games against the Bulldogs, the Blue Devils exploded for 14 runs on 22 hits in game one of the doubleheader on Saturday.

Despite this, they were playing from behind for a majority of the game. The Mountaineers got to senior Tom Curtin for six runs in the first two innings.

It was not until the top of the fourth that the Blue Devils got on the board, scoring four thanks in part to a Dave Matthews two-run home run.

After the Mount got two more in the bottom of the inning, Curtin was pulled for junior Andrew Braun, who silenced the Mountaineers’ bats in three scoreless innings.

Meanwhile, the Blue Devils were chipping away at the lead, even pulling ahead 9-8 in the top of the seventh inning.

It appeared they would pull off the improbable comeback victory until senior Jared Gallagher was taken yard by Mount catcher Zack Costello. But Gallagher would bounce back, throwing three shutout innings, fanning four in the process.

After a two-inning stalemate, the Blue Devil bats broke open once again in the top of the 12th. After back-to-back RBI singles by Matthews and Buddy Dewaine, designated hitter Jake Siracusa blasted a three-run home run, bookending a five-run inning. The Blue Devils took game one by a score of 14-9.

In game two, the Blue Devils trailed 4-2 after seven innings, with junior starting pitcher Brandon Fox keeping them in the contest.

But the bats came alive again in the eighth, scoring four, including RBI from Chandler Debrosse and Sam Loda.

The Mount retaliated quickly, putting up a matching four-spot off Fox and senior Mike Delease in the bottom half of the inning.

Now down 8-6, the bottom of the Blue Devil order came through with back-to-back RBI hits from pinch hitter Jack Nolan and sophomore shortstop Matt Bertochi. Debrosse rounded out the three-run inning with an RBI-single.

The Blue Devils capped off the sweep on Sunday in what looked to be yet another nail-biter.

An RBI-single by Loda gave them a 1-0 lead, a score that would hold until the seventh, on the backs of seven scoreless innings from senior starting pitcher Patrick Mitchell.

But in the eighth, the Central bats once again came alive, dropping a five-spot in the top of the eighth. The highlights of the inning were a two-run double by sophomore outfielder Peyton Stephens and a two-run double by Bertochi.

Mitchell would yield a run in the bottom of the inning, the lone run of his strong eighth-inning performance that saw him walk and strikeout three batters each.

The Blue Devils now sit at 8-7 in the Northeast Conference and sit squarely in the playoff picture. They will stay on the road but return to Connecticut to take on non-conference opponents Quinnipiac and UConn.

The team will then travel to Staten Island, NY to take on Wagner in a three-game NEC series. The last time the two met, the Blue Devils took two of three from the Seahawks in New Britain. A similar result would put the Blue Devils in a strong position in the standings with just two more series in the regular season.