CCSU ended their first full month of play with a win against the visiting Sacred Heart Pioneers in a high-scoring 12-8 matchup on March 31.
It was Central’s 18th game of the regular season, and the team improved its record to 7-11 with the victory.
The Blue Devils began the game defensively as Zach Worzel started on the mound, with the team giving up a run to Sacred Heart in the top of the first before the offense exploded in the bottom of the inning as Central scored six runs almost all consecutively as the Pioneers cycled through three different pitchers. SHU starter Jake Friel was pulled after 0.2 innings, where he gave up four runs.
The following couple of innings saw comparatively less action, as Worzel and CCSU prevented scoring. The second went completely scoreless, as did the third, highlighted by a play from third baseman Louis Jordan where he threw an out at first from the other side of the diamond.
In the top of the fourth, the Pioneers clawed a run back with a homer off Worzel’s first pitch in the inning but were thwarted in their quest for more as Worzel prevented any runs with the bases loaded. Central then piled on the pressure in the bottom of the inning with six more runs scored, with Gianno Merlonghi and Brandon O’Neill getting big hits to bring their teammates home.
As Sacred Heart went to its sixth pitcher of the game at only the bottom of the fifth, Central made a change as well, as Worzel was relieved after his good start for Nico Christon. Christon prevented any runs in the fifth, but after a consecutive strikeout triple from Central in the sixth, he gave up a home run to SHU for its third run of the day.
Christon was replaced by Brandon Candelora for the seventh inning, who almost immediately gave up a two-run home run and the Pioneer runs kept coming throughout the eighth and ninth innings, as the score tightened from 12-3 to 12-8, although the Blue Devils were able to outlast them with expert plays in the outfield to prevent any more scoring.
Merlonghi led the way statistically for Central, recording the most hits on the day with three, while also driving in two runs, a mark shared by teammates Matt Graziose and Gabe Pitts.
Despite the victory, head coach Charlie Hickey mentioned that the team didn’t fully play to his liking, and that there was a lot to go over.
“We’re fortunate. When you play Tuesday baseball, there’s a lot of uncertainty which starts on the mound,” Hickey said.
He later added that the six runs the team got off no hits doesn’t and shouldn’t happen. Hickey bluntly stated that the game played out ugly.
“In all honesty we’re very sloppy and we’re not a very good team. […] If we get that last out on an 0-2 pitch we go home and have dinner at a regular hour,” he said. “But we kept opening the door and they started playing without anything to worry about. It’s part of why we’ve been struggling, we just happened to win today.”
He commended the pitching effort of Worzel and made clear the value of strikeouts in a game such as this.
“It was a good day to hit but you can’t walk people. That’s what we’ve been doing on the weekends and that’s why we’ve been struggling, because we don’t throw enough strikes.”
He added that the team still has a long way to go before they consider themselves a good team.
Central will return to the diamond as they host Northeast Conference rivals Wagner in a three-game series starting on Thursday, April 2.
