The Central Connecticut State University baseball team slugged their way to a 16-12 home victory over visiting Fairfield University on Wednesday, March 22, to increase their win streak to seven games.

After allowing Fairfield to score two runs in the top of the first inning, CCSU responded with a five-run bottom of the first to give them an early lead. Junior Joe Rios started the offensive onslaught for the Blue Devils with a two-run blast over the left field wall.

Two batters later in the same inning, sophomore Josh Taylor, not to be outdone by Rios, hit a two-run homer of his own. The Blue Devils would follow that up with their third longball of the inning when junior Jeff Nicol hit a solo shot with two outs to give CCSU a 5-2 lead after the first inning.

The Blue Devils’ pitching staff ran into some problems in the top of the second when freshman pitcher Drew Munn walked in a run with the bases loaded. The troubles didn’t end there for Munn; just a few batters later, he gave up a double to Fairfield’s senior catcher, Matt Venuto, that brought in three more runs to give the Stags a brief 6-5 lead going into the bottom half of the second inning.

Fairfield’s lead was brief,  CCSU came out in the bottom half of the second and regained the lead by pouring in three more runs to give them an 8-6 lead after the second inning.

Neither team scored again until the fifth inning, where they tallied one run each to keep CCSU’s lead at three. The Blue Devil’s tallied their lone run of the fifth inning with a solo shot from Nicol, his second of the game.

In the sixth inning, the Blue Devils’ offense exploded with six more runs, including a two-run single from Nicol to add to his big day at the plate. After the sixth, CCSU led 15-8 and would add one more run in the seventh with a solo homer off the bat of junior Dan Hussey.

Fairfield would attempt a comeback in the top of the ninth by scoring three runs to push the score to 16-12 but could not complete the comeback, with the Blue Devils ultimately shutting the door on the Stags.

After the win over Fairfield, the Blue Devils are 9-3 overall on the season, with two of their three losses coming from the number one-ranked Louisiana State University. They are also 7-0 in conference play this season and look to take on conference foe Norfolk State University in a three-game series this weekend.