No. 18 Bulldogs drop game one Saturday, 8-4

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Central Connecticut baseball team scored seven runs over the final three innings to defeat the No. 18 Bryant University baseball team, 8-4, in game one of a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Conaty Park.

With the loss, the Bulldogs (37-10, 20-4 NEC) slipped to 13-3 at home this season. The Blue Devils (20-28, 12-14) kept pace in the NEC playoff hunt with the victory.

Trailing 3-1, the Blue Devils grabbed the lead with a three-run fifth, tacked on three more runs in the sixth and added an insurance run in the seventh. In the fifth, Dean Lockery and Mitch Guilmette both stroked opposite-field singles and Connor Fitzsimons tied the game with a double to right center. Nick Landell broke the tie with a two-out single to center.

A single and an infield error put the first two runners on in the sixth and Guilmette made it 5-3 with a bloop single to right field. A hit by pitch loaded the bases with two outs and Matt Martinez came through with a clutch, two-out, two-RBI seeing-eye single up the middle to make it 7-3. Franklin Jennings doubled and scored on a wild pitch to tack on an insurance run in the seventh.

Bryant was the first two score, plating a run just two batters into the game. Freshman Nick Angelini (Bedford, N.H.) singled to center to start the game and then scampered around from first as senior Robby Rinn (Warwick, R.I.) slashed a double into left center. Rinn eventually moved to third with one out but CCSU starter Andrew Hinckley got back-to-back ground balls to strand him.

The teams then traded home runs over the next three innings. Jennings tied the game with a solo home run, his first extra-base hit of the season, to lead off the third. In the fourth, senior Zach Wood (Griswold, Conn.) singled with two outs and classmate Dan Cellucci (Sudbury, Mass.) followed with a line drive home run over the left field wall to make it 3-1. It was Cellucci's third home run in four games.

Hinckley (7-3), however, kept the Bulldogs in check, tossing his sixth complete game in eight starts. He allowed four runs on 10 hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out four. Hinckley escaped another jam in the fifth as he preserved a 4-3 lead by retiring Rinn and junior Matt Albanese (East Haddam, Conn.) with the tying run standing at third base.

Wood finished the game 3-for-3, Angelini went 2-for-4 and Cellucci drove in three runs. Junior Brandon Bingel (Peabody, Mass.) allowed four runs on seven hits over 4 1/3 innings, falling to 7-3 on the year. He walked a season-high four and struck out six.