NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — The hardware is framed, the confetti has long since been swept away, and the bus to Auburn, Ala., is a memory. What remains for the Central Connecticut State University baseball program heading into the 2026 season is something more complicated than a championship defense. It is, in many ways, a rebuild in champion’s clothing.
Last spring, the Blue Devils went 31-17 overall and 23-7 in Northeast Conference play, claiming the program’s ninth NEC tournament championship and punching their ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in program history.
They faced No. 4 national seed Auburn in front of a crowd of 7,367 at Plainsman Park, which was the largest attendance in the stadium’s history at the time. The Blue Devils fell 9-5 in the opener and were eliminated by NC State the following day. By any measure, it was a season to remember. By every roster measure, it is a season this year’s team will have to work hard to follow.
The departures hit hard and they hit at the top. Aidan Redahan, the NEC Player of the Year and the 2025 NCAA batting average champion at .455, the third player in the NCAA to hit .450 or better since 2011, is gone. So is right-hander Vincent Borghese, who led the staff and ranked first nationally with six complete games in 2025 according to CCSU Department of Athletics. And so is closer Wyatt Cameron, who earned NEC Tournament MVP honors after pitching in all four tournament games, posting a 1.74 ERA in 10.1 innings with two saves in the championship round, before signing professionally with the Great Falls Voyagers of the Frontier League.
The senior class that carried this program to Auburn included infielders Brady Short, Jackson Haker, Colby Brouillette and Matt Falk, and outfielder Chris Brown, players who formed the spine of a lineup that ranked fourth nationally with a .329 team batting average and averaged 8.7 runs per game.
Head coach Charlie Hickey, who earned his 800th career victory during the NEC tournament run and is in his 26th season as the winningest coach in CCSU history, does not pretend the math is simple.
“We have a lot of inexperience that has yet to go out there and play,” Hickey said. “A lot of things to work on.”
None of that stops the Northeast Conference from recognizing what this program has built. CCSU enters 2026 atop the NEC preseason poll, a nod to a consistency that has produced Conference Championships in five of the last eight years and 20 seasons of 20-plus wins under Hickey’s watch. The coach takes that recognition for what he believes it is worth.
“They’re meaningless,” Hickey said of the preseason rankings. “It wasn’t too long ago that we were ranked first and didn’t make the conference playoffs. They’re gone usually the first week of the season once you play and start to produce. It’s a recognition of the consistency that the program’s had… along with the Long Island universities and the Wagners and the FDUs, that’s where you see the results are usually from, last year’s.”
Those are the sentiments of a coach who has been here before. What is new in 2026 is the depth of the roster’s inexperience and the size of the shoes that need filling.
However, not everything has been stripped bare. Among the players returning is outfielder Gianno Merlonghi, a senior who was part of both the 2023 and 2025 NEC championship teams and who appeared in the Auburn Regional, going 2-for-5 with two runs scored against one of the nation’s elite programs. Merlonghi, who batted .378 in 2024 and contributed across a lineup that drove the Blue Devils to back-to-back tournament appearances, spoke this week about what the team is carrying into the new year.
“The team is not content with last year’s championship,” Merlonghi said. “We have a new team who is looking to repeat as NEC champions.”
He described the mood inside the program heading into the season’s final weeks of preparation as one of urgency mixed with optimism. “Guys have been coming to practice with high energy and ready to work,” he said. “As veterans, we have been trying to keep guys motivated with a long season ahead of us. Continuing the winning culture here at CCSU is a priority for us.”
Merlonghi also offered a scouting report on what may surprise people about this group. “Our biggest strength is our raw talent,” he said. “Although we do not have much all-around experience, the younger guys on our team are projectable.” He summed the team up in three words: young, hungry, gritty.
Individually, Merlonghi arrives in 2026 with a specific offensive focus.
“I am personally working on bringing in a lot of runs at the plate,” he said. “Taking advantage of runners in scoring position, extra base hits and runs batted in.”
Returning outfielder Antonio Ducatelli, who earned All-NEC Second Team honors in 2025 and played a central role in both the NEC tournament and the Auburn Regional, also figures to anchor the veteran presence alongside Merlonghi. Hickey spoke at length about the nature of leadership within the program, specifically, the fact that there are no formal captains, and never have been under his watch.
“In the high school world, just because you’re a senior you’re elected captain,” Hickey said. “In the college game, you see guys that are more ready for that role and accept it. The leaders will take care of themselves, guys who come out and play hard and set an example every day in how to conduct themselves. Those are the people that I want to lead this program.”
The same philosophy extends to the mound, where the losses of Cameron and Borghese leave the most significant voids heading into 2026. Hickey said a group of arms will get their opportunity when the Blue Devils open the season in Florida, with the rotation taking shape through competition rather than coronation.
“They’re going to get a chance to go out and start the first weekend,” Hickey said. “And then it’s going to be read and play on, see where they can be successful. We’ve done it before. We’ll do it again.”
CCSU opens the 2026 campaign with a trip to Florida, where the Blue Devils will play four games in three days before returning north for their home opener against Fairfield. It is a deliberate scheduling choice, one Hickey makes with both weather and program budget in mind.
“We try to manage our budget in a way that’s best for our program,” he said. “It’s something that kids get a little itchy for. But we try to find a place where you can go get the weather, and you’re also playing a team that’s comparable to where I think we are at this time of season.”
With only five games before conference play begins, the margin for error is thin. But Hickey pointed out that the 12-team NEC schedule, which spans 11 weekends, provides room for a young team to grow into itself.
His target after the first four conference weekends is to be at or around .500 and building momentum. The goal Merlonghi stated on behalf of his team is more direct: win the NEC tournament and reach another NCAA Regional.
“You obviously don’t want to dig yourself a hole,” Hickey said. “But you want to sort of get out there after the first four weekends where you’re around .500, and then sort of hope that by that time you start to play better and know your team better, and be in a position to make a run later in the year.”
The non-conference slate features dates against Northeastern University and Fairfield University, programs Hickey acknowledged are likely stronger than the typical weekend NEC opponent. Those mid-week contests are planned development opportunities, a chance to expose younger pitchers to high-level competition while protecting the weekend rotation for conference games that carry championship implications.
When asked which conference matchups stand out most, Merlonghi was direct.
“LIU and Wagner are our most anticipated matchups this season,” he said. “We tend to play our best baseball against those competitive teams.”
Long Island University finished first in the NEC in 2025 with a 24-6 conference record and pushed CCSU to a winner-take-all game in the championship final. Wagner has been a perennial contender. Those are the measuring sticks this program knows well.
For the CCSU community, Hickey has a simple message. He knows the cold of February makes the game feel distant, and he knows the bleachers on campus are exposed to the elements. He also knows what happens when the calendar turns.
“The weather’s gonna break at some point,” Hickey said. “Mid-March and April, when we’re going to be out there, come out and see some young kids that hopefully have developed and continue to be successful and carry on the tradition of leading us to another conference championship.”
That tradition, built across nine NEC titles and 26 seasons under Hickey, is the only standard this program operates against. Last year’s Blue Devils left a high bar. This year’s group: young, hungry and gritty, by Merlonghi’s own account, will spend the next four months trying to prove just that.
